UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


The  Birth  of  the 
Russian  Democracy 


323^ 


A.   J.    SACK 


Director  of  the  Russian  Information  Bureau 
in    the  United  States 


Russian  Information  Bureau 

Woolworth    Building 

New  York  City 


Z\S^7 


Copyright.  1918, 

by 

A.    J.  Sack 


CONTENTS 


Part  I 

The  History  of  the  Revolutionary  Movement 

in  Russia 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Decembrists — The  First  Russian  Revolutionists 19 

The  founding  of  the  first  Russian  revolutionary  organizations  after 
the  Napoleonic  War — Pavel  Pestel — "Union  of  Salvation-' — Its 
aim — Mikhail  Muraviov — "Union  of  Welfare" — Its  aims — Mutiny 
in  the  Semionovsky  Regiment  in  1820 — "Society  of  United  Slavs'' — 
The  "Northern  Society-' — Its  Constitution — The  "Southern  So- 
ciety's" Constitution — The  uprising  of  December  14,  1825 — The  trial 
of  the  Decembrists — Executions  and  prison  sentences — The  find- 
ings of  the  Investigating  Committee. 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Revolutionary  Movement  during  the  Reign  of  Nicholas  I 
and  the  First  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II 28 

Student-circles  in  the  University  of  Moscow — Hertzen's  Circle — 
Stankevitch's  Circle — The  "educational"  policy  of  Nicholas  I — 
The  effect  of  the  French  Revolution  of  1848  on  the  Russian 
"intelligentsia" — Bielinsky,  the  "Annals  of  the  Fatherland"  and 
the  "Contemporary-'  —  The  Buturlin  Committee  —  Censorship 
measures  —  The  Petrashevsky  Circle  and  F.  M.  Dostoievsky- — 
The  War  with  Turkey  in  1853 — Spreading  of  revolutionary  senti- 
ment among  the  conservative  elements  and  the  masses — Death  of 
Nicholas  I. 

The  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  II — The  reform  move- 
ment— Alexander  Hertzen  and  his  "Bell" — The  emancipation  of  the 
serfs  in  1861 — Disturbances  among  the  peasantry — The  movement 
in  the  University  of  Kazan — The  movement  among  the  nobility 
of  the  Province  of  Tver — Peter  Kropotkin's  characterization  of 
Alexander  II — The  movement  in  commercial  and  industrial  circles 
— Growth  of  revolutionary  spirit  among  "intelligentsia" — Cherny- 
shevsky's  arrest — Karakozov's  attempt  on  life  of  Alexander  II — 
Governmental  repressions — Count  Dmitri  Tolstoy  and  his  educa- 
tional policy — Repressions  against  the  press. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Revolutionary  and  Liberal  Movement  during  the  Latter 
Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II 41 

The  Narodnichestvo — Disturbances  in  the  Universities — M.  A.  Ba- 
kuniii — Circle  of  Tchaykovsky — Kropotkin  on  the  Tchaykovsky 
Circle — The  revolutionary  center  in  Zurich — P.  L.  Lavrov  and  M. 
A.  Bakunin — The  movement  "V  narod"  (To  the  people) — The 
society  "Land  and  Freedom" — The  demonstration  before  the  Kazan 
Cathedral  in  December,  1876 — Plekhanov's  speech — War  with  Tur- 
key— The  inefficiency  of  the  bureaucracy — Governmental  persecu- 
tions and  terror — Revolutionary  terror — Vera  Zasulich — Assassina- 
tion of  Gen.  Mezentzov — Assassination  of  Prince  Dmitri  Kropotkin 
— The  Zemstvo  movement — I.  I.  Petrunkevitch's  speech  in  the 
Chernigov  Zemstvo— Split  in  the  "Land  and  Freedom" — Congress 
at  Lipetsk — Congress  at  Voronezh — New  Parties:  "Black  Reparti- 
tion" and  "Will  of  the  People" — Formation  of  the  "Executive 
Committee" — Attempts  on  the  life  of  Alexander  II — Dictatorship 
of  Loris-MelikofF — Assassination   of  Alexander  II. 

CHAPTER  IV 
H.  A.  Lopatin — A  typical  Russian  Revolutionist  of  the 

Sixties -.  .  61 

Lopatin's  college  days — His  debut  as  a  revolutionist — Arrest  and  exile — 
Second  arrest — Trial — Escape — His  life  in  Switzerland — His  return 
to  Russia — Trip  to  Siberia  in  search  of  Chernyshevsky — His  arrest 
— His  sudden  escape — His  life  in  Zurich — His  arrest  upon  return  to 
Russia — His  escape  from  the  Vologda  prison — The  assassination  of 
Soudeykin  —  Lopatin's  arrest  —  The  trial  —  Imprisonment  in  the 
Schliisselburg  fortress — His  liberation  in   1905. 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Reaction  during  the  Reign  of  Alexander  III. 69 

The  conference  of  March  4,  1881 — Pobiedonostzev's  speech  and  victory 
— Manifesto  of  April  29,  1881 — Change  of  Ministry — Decided  re- 
actionary course — Degaiev's  treachery — Arrest  of  the  remnant  of 
the  "Will  of  the  People" — Annihilation  of  previous  judiciary  re- 
forms— Religious  and  race  persecutions — Measures  against  non- 
orthodox  sects — Measures  against  Poles  and  Jews — Measures 
against  the  press. 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Revolutionary  and  Liberal  Movement  during  the  Early 
Years  of  the  Reign  of  Nicholas  II 75 

Revived  hope  in  liberal  circles — Zemstvos'  delegations — Address  of 
the  Tver  Zemstvo — Tzar's  answer  to  the  "senseless  dreams" — 
Disappointment  among  the  liberals — The  open  letter  from  the 
revolutionists  abroad — Pobiedonostzev's  and  Von  Plehve's  policy 
— Founding  of  the  Union  of  Liberation — The  excommunication  of 
Leo  Tolstoy — Persecutions  of  Jews — Pogroms — Measures  against 
the  Georgians  and  Armenians — Confiscation  of  Armenian  Church- 
lands  and  Church-funds. 


Development  of  capitalism  in  Russia — Growth  of  city  proletariat — 
Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor — Russian  Social-Democratic 
Workingmen's  Party — Witte's  policy  towards  labor — The  strike 
in  Odessa — The  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists — Its  Fighting 
Organization. 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Activities  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party  of 
Socialists-Revolutionists    81 

Assassination  of  the  Minister  of  Education,  Bogolepev — Peter  Karpo- 
vich — Assassination  of  the  Minister  of  Interior,  Sypiagin — Stepan 
Balmashev — His  execution — Assassination  of  the  Governor  of  Ufa, 
Bogdanovich — Grigory  Gershuni — Story  of  his  life — His  trial — 
His  escape  from  Siberia — Assassination  of  the  Minister  of  Interior, 
Yon  Plehve — E.  Sazonov. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905 — Bloody  Sunday.  .94 

War  with  Japan — Assassination  of  Von  Plehve — Prince  Sviatopolk- 
Mirs_ky — Congress  of  Ze-ststvos — Pobiedonostzev's  influence — New 
tide  of  reaction — Bloody  Sunday — Gapon's  letters  to  the  Minister 
of  Interior  and  to  the  Tzar — The  demands  of  the  workingmen — 
Shooting  on  the  people — Gapon's  new  letter  to  the  Tzar  and  appeal 
to  the  Russian  Socialist  Parties. 

CHAPTER  IX' 
The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution 106 

Spread  of  disturbances  and  --strikes  throughout  the  country — 
Martial  law  in  Poland,  the  Caucasus  and  over  all  railroads — As- 
sassination of  Grand  Duke  Serghei  Alexandrovich — Ivan  Kaliaiev — 
The  activities  of  the  Social-Democrats  and  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists— The  Peasants'  Movement — The  activities  of  the  Liberals — 
Congress  of  Zemstvos  in  Moscow — Deputation  to  the  Tzar- 
Prince  Trubetskoy's  speech — The  Tzar's  answer — The  spread  of 
Revolution — Mutiny  on  the  Battleship  Potiomkin. 

CHAPTER  X 

On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905 114 

The  Manifesto  of  August  3rd — Second  Congress  of  Zemstvos — 
October.  1905 — First  General  Political  Strike — Manifesto  of 
October  17th — Massacres  of  Jews  and  "intelligentsia" — The  or- 
ganization of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates  in  St.  Petersburg 
— Mutiny  in  Kronstadt — The  movement  for  autonomy  in  Poland — 
Second  General  Political  Strike — Third  Congress  of  Zemstvos — 
Split  among  the  Liberals — Organization  of  the  Party  of  Octobrists 
— The  weakening-  of  the  Revolution — Arrest  of  the  President  of 
the  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates — Arrest  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Peasants'  Union — Martial  law  in  St.  Petersburg — 
Arrest  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates — The  Third  General 
Political  Strike — The  coming  reaction. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Zinaida  Konopliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova. 124 

The  armed  uprising  in  Moscow  in  December,  1905 — Punitive  expedi- 
tions— Assassination  of  General  Alien — Zinaida  Konopliannikova — 
Story  of  her  life — Her  speech  at  the  trial — Her  execution — Maria 
Spiridonova — The  shooting  of  Lujenovsky— Her  arrest  and  torture. 

CHAPTER  XII 

y      The  First  and  the  Second  Duma 136 

The  Government's  reactionary  measures  before  the  convocation  of 
the  First  Duma — Socialists'  boycott  of  the  First  Duma — Constitu- 
tional-Democrats' control  of  the  First  Duma  —  Reforms  de- 
manded by  the  First  Duma — The  dissolution  of  the  First  Duma — 
The  Viborg  Manifesto — Elections  to  the  Second  Duma — Socialists' 
factions  in  the  Second  Duma — The  Government's  policy  towards 
the  Second  Duma — The  dissolution  of  the  Second  Duma — The  re- 
actionary policy  of  the  Tzar's  Government. 

CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution 157 

The  social  classes,  participants  in  the  First  Revolution — Their  needs — 
The  defeat  of  the  First  Revolution — Its  causes — The  reaction  of 
1906-1910 — The  breaking  of  the  reactionary  wave — The  coming 
of  the  Second  Revolution — Great  strike  in  St.  Petersburg  on  the 
eve  of  war — The  declaration  of  war — The  change  in  Socialist  tac- 
tics— The  joint  Socialist:  Manifesto  to  the  Russian  laboring  masses. 


Part  II 

The  Spiritual  Leaders  of  the 
Russian  Revolution 

CHAPTER  I 

Mikhail   Alexandrovich   Bakunin 171 

Mikhail  Bakunin's  early,  years — Polish  Rebellion  of  1830  —  First 
"  feelings  of  hatred  for  despotism — Friendship  with  Stankevitch 
and  Bielinsky — Life  abroad — Meeting  with  Karl  Marx,  Engels 
and  Proudhon — Expulsion  from  France — Hertzen's  characteriza- 
tion of  Bakunin's  life  in  Paris — Bakunin  in  Germany — Expulsion 
from  Prussia  and  Saxony — Participation  in  the  German  Revolu- 
tion— Bakunin's  arrest  in  Saxony — Death  sentence  and  extradition 
to  Austria — Again  death  sentence  and  extradition  to  Russia — 
Bakunin  in  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul — Nicholas  I, 
about  Bakunin — Bakunin  in  the  Fortress  of  Schliisselburg — Baku- 
nin in  Siberia — His  escape  from  Siberia — His  life  abroad — The 
organization  of  the  "International  Union  of  Social  Democracy" — 
'Franco-Prussian  War — Bakunin's  activities  in  France — The  ap- 
proach of  old  age — Bakunin's  farewell  letter  to  his  comrades — 
Prince  Kropotkin,  about  Bakunin. 


CHAPTER  II 

Peter  Lavrovich  Lavrov ISO 

Lavrov's  life  and  work  before  his  arrest — Incarceration  in  the  Military- 
Prison  of  St.  Petersburg — Banishment  to  Vologda — The  escape 
abroad — Joining  the  International — "Historic  Letters" — Editing 
the  "Vperiod" — Lavrov's  scientific  work — Editing  the  "Yiestnik 
Narodnoy  Voli" — Lavrov  as  recognized  leader  of  the  Russian  "in- 
telligentsia— Tchaykovsky,  about  Lavrov — The  last  years  of  Lav- 
rov's life. 

CHAPTER  III 
Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin 187 

Kropotkin's  childhood — School  days  and  preparation  for  a  Court 
career  —  First  acquaintance  with  revolutionary  ideas  —  Life  at 
Court  —  Scientific  studies  —  Life  in  Siberia  —  Research  work — 
Return  to  St.  Petersburg — Studies  at  the  University — The  turning 
point  in  Kropotkin's  life — Revolutionary  activities — Life  in  Switzer- 
land— Affiliation  with  the  International  Workingmen's  Association 
— Propaganda  among  the  workers  in  the  Jura  Mountains — Return 
to  Petrograd — Affiliation  with  the  Tchaykovsky  Circle — Arrest  in 
1874  —  Escape  —  The  assassination  of  Alexander  II — The  Holy 
League — Kropotkin's  exile  from  Switzerland — Kropotkin's  arrest 
in  connection  with  the  uprising  of  the  weavers  of  Lyons  in  1882 — 
Work  and  impressions  in  prison — Release  from  prison  in  1886 — 
"Mutual  Aid" — Return  to  Russia  in  1917 — Stand  on  the  war — 
Speech  before  the  National  Conference  in  Moscow. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Ekaterina  Constantinovna  Breshko-Breshkovskaya 201 

Breshkovskaya's  parents — Early  education — First  activities  as  a  revo- 
lutionist and  propagandist — Arrest — Trial — Her  term  as  hard  labor 
convict — Exile  to  Siberia — Unsuccessful  attempt  at  escape — Second 
term  as  haxd  labor  convict  in  the  Kara  mines — Hunger  strike — 
George  Kennan,  about  the  "Grandmother  of  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion"— Her  return  to  Central  Russia  in  1896 — Affiliation  with  the 
Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists — Stay  in  the  United  States  in 
1904 — Return  tcTTRussia — Arrest  in  1907 — Preliminary  confinement 
in  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul— Exile  to  Siberia — Liberation 
in  1917 — Breshkovskaya's  message  to  America. 

CHAPTER  V 
George  Valentinovich  Plekhanov 216 

Association  with  the  Party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People" — Escape  from 
arrest — Affiliation  with' "Land  and  Freedom" — First  literary  works 
— Propaganda  among  the  workers — Secession  from  the  Partv  of 
the  "Will  of  the  People" — Forced  trip  abroad — Study  of  scientific 
socialism — Plekhanov's  role  as  founder  of  the  Group  for  the 
Emancipation  of  Labor — His  contributions  to  Socialist  literature — 
Controversy  with  the  "Will  of  the  People — Literary  works — Atti- 
tude towards  the  Bolsheviki — Works  on  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment of  Russian  political  thought — Plekhanov's  stand  on  the  pres- 
ent war — The  Socialist  manifesto  to  the  working  people  of  Russia — 
Plekhanov  as  the  future  leader  of  the  Russian  Democracy. 


Part  III 
The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

CHAPTER  I 
The  March  Revolution 227 

The  beginning  of  the  March  Revolution — The  Tzar's  abdication — 
Formation  of  Provisional  Government — Duma's  part  in  the  first 
days  of  the  Revolution — Formation  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates — First  declaration  of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment— Abolition  of  religious  and  national  restrictions  and  the 
granting  of  civil  liberties  to  all  Russian  citizens — First  official 
notice  of  the  Revolution  to  the  foreign  Powers — Foreign  policv  of 
the  first  Provisional  Government  as  outlined  by  Miliukov — Domes- 
tic policy  of  the  Provisional  Government — Liberation  of  the  op- 
pressed nationalities — Finnish  autonomy — Appeal  to  the  Poles — 
Extension  of  equal  rights  to  the  Jews — Recognition  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government  by  the  United  States — Recognition  by  other 
Allied  countries. 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government.  .  .256 

The  economic  program  of  the  first  Provisional  Government  as  the 
inevitable  program  of  Russia's  future  economic  development — A.  I. 
Konovalov's  speech  before  the  Moscow  Stock  Exchange  on  April 
4,  1917 — Two  fundamental  problems,  before  New  Russia — The  rela- 
tion of  the  Provisional  Government  to  capital  and  labor — Russia's 
need  of  foreign  capital — American-Russian  rapprochement — Con- 
struction of  a  merchant  marine — The  necessity  for  a  thorough 
study  of  Russia's  national  resources  and  their  development — 
Development  of  the  mining  industry — Nationalization  of  under- 
ground riches — Measures  concerning  the  reorganization  of  industry 
and  its  restoration  to  normal  pre-war  basis — Cooperation  of  th 
people,  essential  factor  in  carrying  out  reforms. 


e 


CHAPTER  III 

The  First  Crisis — The  Resignation  of  A.  I.  Guchkov  and 
P.  N.  Miliukov 272 

Breach  between  Provisional  Government  and  Petrograd  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — Miliukov's  communication  to 
the  Allied  Powers — Attitude  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates — Guchkov's  and  Miliukov's  resignation. 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates 
and  its  relation  to  the  War 275 

Resolution  to  call'  International  Socialist  Conference  —  Skobelev's 
speech — Appeal  to  the  Socialists  of  all  countries — Appeal  to  the 
Socialists  of  the  Allied  countries — Appeal  to  the  Socialists  of  the 
Austro-German  Alliance — Appeal  to  the  workingmen  and  Social- 
ists of  the  neutral  countries — Tseretelli's  speech — Appeal  to  the 
Army. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front 283 

Guchkov's  speech — Kerensky's  speech — Tseretelli's  speech — Guchkov's 
second  speech — Plekhanov's  speech — Sailor  Batkin's  speech — His 
answer  to  the  Bolsheviki — Resolution  adopted  by  the  Convention. 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates.  .  .305 

S.  S.  Maslov's  speech — Breshko-Breshkovskaya's  speech — Chernov's 
speech — N.  D.  Avksentiev's  speech — Chernov's  second  speech — 
— Kerensky's  speech — Dr.  Smirnov's  speech — Bunakov's  speech — 
Col.  Jakubovich's  speech — Resolutions  adopted  by  the  Congress — 
Appeal  to  the  people — Executive  Committee  of  the  Congress. 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Middle  Class  in  its  Relation  to  the  War  and  to  the  Re- 
construction of  Russia 327 

Private  sessions  of  the  Duma — Guchkov's  speech — Miliukov's  speech — 
Maklakov's  speech — Rodzianko's  statement — The  All-Russian  Con- 
gress of  Officers'  Delegates — Gushchin's  speech — Steklov's  speech — 
Shidlovsky's  speech — Greetings  from  Allied  nations — Agnieev's  and 
Batkin's  speeches — Kerensky's  speech — Resolution  regarding  the 
war — Resolution  regarding  internal  conditions  of  the  Army. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Second  Cabinet 346 

Guchkov's  and  Miliukov's  resignation — The  Government  crisis — De- 
cision of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates to  participate  in  Government — Declaration  of  the  new  Cabi- 
net— Troteky's  opposition  to  a  Coalition  Cabinet — Resolution  of 
the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — 
Vote  of  confidence  in  the  Government — Trotsky's  speech  at  the 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — 
Tseretelli's  speech — Kamenev's  speech — Resolution  adopted  by  the 
Congress. 

CHAPTER  IX 

Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  and  their  Relation  to  the 
Russian  Revolution    356 

Visit  of  representatives  of  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Movement  to 
Russia — Samuel  Gompers'  appeal  to  the  Petrograd  Cpuncil  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — Emile  Vandervelde's  state- 
ment— Labriola's  speech — Albert  Thomas'  speech  at  the  Confer- 
ence of  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates — Thomas'  address  at  a  meeting  of 
officers  of  the  Moscow  garrison — Thomas'  speech^ before  the  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  Moscow  Council  of  Soldiers'  Delegates— His 
final  statement— Arthur  Henderson's  speech  before  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Council  of  Workman's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — 
Henderson's  speech  before  English  colony  in  Moscow— Hender- 
son^ speech  before  Executive  Committee  of  Moscow  Council' of 
W  orkmen  and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 


CHAPTER  X 
The  American  Mission  to  Russia 377 

Personnel  of  Special  American  Mission  to  Russia — President  Wilson's 
note  to  Russia — President  Wilson's  statement  on  the  aims  of 
American  Mission  to  Russia — Senator  Root's  address  before  Rus- 
sian Provisional  Government — Terestchenko's  reply — The  activities 
of  the  American  Mission — Tames  Duncan  at  the  All-Russian  Con- 
gress of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — Tscheidze's  reply — 
Charles  Edward  Russell  at  the  conference  of  the  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates — The  return  of  the  Mission  to  the 
United  States — Senator  Root's  address  at  reception  tendered  by 
City  of  New  York — Senator  Root's  speech  before  Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  the  State  of  New  York — The  achievements  of  the 
Mission. 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  States .391 

Arrival  of  the  Russian  Mission — Personnel  of  the  Mission — Ambassa- 
dor Bakhmeteff's  speech  at  presentation  of  credentials — President 
Wilson's  reply — Ambassador  Bakhmeteff's  statement  to  the  press 
— Address  before  the  House  of  Representatives — Address  before 
the  Senate. 

CHAPTER  XII 
On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive 405 

Kerensky's  part  in  the  preparation  of  the  offensive — Attitude  of  the 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates — 
Attitude  of  the  All-Russian  Cossacks'  Congress — Attitude  of  the 
Duma — Kerensky's  order  to  the  Army — Polemics  between  Lenine 
and  Kerensky. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Great  Crisis— July,  1917 416 

The  disaster  in  the  Army — Prince  Lvov's  resignation — Changes  in  the 
Cabinet — Appeal  to  the  Army — Gen.  Kornilov's  appeal  to.  the 
troops — Resolution  of  Executive  Committee  of  All-Russian  Coun- 
cils of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates — Appeal  to 
the  Arm}- — Restoration  of  capital  punishment — Principal  causes 
of  disaster  in  the  Army — Ukrainian  problem — The  policy  of  the 
Provisional  Government  towards  the  Ukraine — Appeal  of  the  All- 
Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  regarding 
the  Bolshevist  agitation — First  Bolsheviki  revolt — Its  suppression 
— Declaration  of  the  new  Cabinet. 

CHAPTER   XIV 
The  National  Conference  in  Moscow 434 

Chernov's  resignation— New  Governmental  crisis — The  National  Con- 
ference— Its  composition  and  competence — President  Wilson's  mes- 
sage to  the  National  Conference — Kerensky's  speech — Nekrasov's 
speech — General  Kornilov's  speech — General  Kaledine's  speech — 
Tscheidze's  speech — Guchkov's  speech  —  Tseretelli's  speech — 
Boublikov's  speech — Breshko-Breshkovskaya's  speech — Peter  Kro- 
potkin's  speech  —  Plekhanov's  speech  —  Kerensky's  concluding 
speech. 


CHAPTER  XV 
The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt 475 

Riga's  fall — Its  cause  and  effect — Kornilov's  revolt — Kerensky's  state- 
ment— Kornilov's  telegram  to  the  Central  Naval  Committee — 
Telegram  sent  by  Provisional  Government — Kerensky's  order  to 
the  Troops  of  Petrograd — Order  to  the  Cossacks — His  order  to  the 
entire  Army — Order  to  the  Railway  Workers — Kornilov's  arrest — 
Russia  proclaimed  a-,Republic — V.  N.  Lvov's  part  in  Kornilov's  re- 
volt— Gen.  Kornilov's  telegram  to  Kerensky  and  to  Gen.  Brusilov 
— Kornilov's  telegram  to  Kerensky  on  having  been  appointed 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies — Kornilov's  farewell 
order  to  the  troops  of  the  Southwestern  Front. 

CHAPTER  XVI 
The   Democratic   Conference  and  the  Preliminary  Parlia- 
ment   486 

Composition  of  the  Democratic  Conference — New  Coalition  Cabinet — 
Its  declaration — Preliminary  Parliament — Attitude  of  Bolsheviki 
towards    Preliminary    Parliament — Kerensky's    last    speech. 

CHAPTER  XVII 

Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki 494 

Last  act  of  Preliminary  Parliament — Role  of  Petrograd  garrison  in 
Bolsheviki  revolt — Overthrow  of  the  Provisional  Government — 
The  Bolsheviki  Cabinet — Origin  of  the  Bolsheviki  movement — 
Cause  of  the  Bolsheviki  success — Attitude  of  moderate  Socialist 
leaders  towards  the  Bolsheviki — The  part  played  by  the  Bolsheviki 
in  Revolution  of  1905 — Activities  of  the  Bolsheviki  in  period  of  re- 
action— Character  of  the  Bolsheviki  rule — Foreign  policy  of  the 
Bolsheviki — Domestic  policy  of  the  Bolsheviki — Attitude  of  the 
majority  of  Russian  people  toward  the  Bolsheviki  at  the  moment 
of  the  revolt — Attitude  of  peasantry — Manifestoes  of  Executive 
Committee  of  All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates — Reso- 
lution and  proclamation  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of 
Socialists-Revolutionists — Appeal  of  the  Petrograd  Committee  of 
the  Social-Democratic  Party  —  Appeal  of  university  students — 
Maxim  Gorky's  stand  on  the  Bolsheviki  revolt — Lenine,  on  the 
political  parties  in  Russia — The  evolution  of  Bolshevism — The 
national  problem  in  Russia — The  Ukrainian  problem — Siberia  and 
the  Caucasus — The  Cossack  movement — The  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  the  Constituent  Assembly — The  Bolsheviki  and  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly — The  disbandment  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
— The  appeal  of  the  Socialists-Revolutionists — Laws  and  resolu- 
tions passed  by  the  Constituent  Assembly — Conclusion. 


List  of  Illustrations 


PAGE 

Decembrists   19 

Pestel,   P 21 

Kakhovsky,  P 21 

Ryleiev,    K 23 

Muraviov,   S 23 

Stankevitch,  N.  V 28 

Bielinsky,   Vissarion    31 

Turgeniev,   I.  S 33 

Dostoievsky,  T.  M 33 

Hertzen,  Alexander 35 

Kropotkin,  Prince  Peter 36 

Chernyshevsky,  N.  J 39 

Bakunin,   Mikhail    43 

Tchaykovsky,  Nicholay    45 

Morozov,   Nicholay    47 

Lavro.y*  Peter    48 

Plekhanov,    George 50 

Zasulich,    Vera    52 

Zheliabov,  A.   1 56 

Perovskaya,    Sophia    57 

Mikhailov,  T.  M 57 

Kibaltich,    N.    1 57 

Grinevitsky,    N.    1 57 

Lopatin,   H.  A 61 

Figner,  Vera    71 

Volkenstein,  L.  A 73 

Mikhailovsky,   N.   C 79 

Balmashev,    Stepan    . .. 83 

Karpovich,   Peter 84 

Gershuni,   Grigory    87 

"Revolutionary  Russia"    89 

Savinkov,    Boris   V 91 

Gapon,  Father  94 

Sazonov,   E 95 

Sazonov,   E.    ...,._. 96 

Kaliaiev,  Ivan ..107 

Kaliaiev,  Ivan    109 

Schmidt,  Lieut.  Peter  P.. 119 

After  a  punitive  expedition. .  .124 

Spiridonova,   Maria    125 

Konopliannikova,  Zinaida    ....125 

Muromtzev,    Prof.   S.  A 139 

Members   of  the    First    Duma, 

Constitutional   -   Democratic 

Party    142-144 

Members   of   the    First    Duma, 

Party  of  Democratic  Reforms  145 
Members    of  the    First    Duma, 

Labor  Group   145-147 

Members    of   the    First   Duma, 

Social-Democratic  Party  147-148 
Members  of  the  Second  Duma. 

Constitutional   -   Democratic 

Party    .....149-151 


PAGE 

Members  of  the  Second  Duma, 

Labor  Group   152 

Members  of  the  Second  Duma, 

Social-Democratic  Party  153-155 
Members  of  the  Second  Duma, 
Party    of    Socialists-Revolu- 
tionists      155-156 

Bakunin,   Mikhail    173 

Lavrov,   Peter    i80 

Kropotkin,  Prince  Peter 189 

Breshkovskaya,  E.  C.  Breshko1203 
Breshkovskaya,  E.  C.  Breshko-205 

Plekhanov,    George    216 

"Iscra"     219 

Tavrichesky  Palace   ^.227 

Funeral  procession,  March  23, 

1917 228 

First  Provisional  Government. 229 

Rodzianko,    M.   V 229 

"The  Most  Enduring  Union". 230 
Facsimile  of  telegram  sent  out 
by  the  Commissaire  of  the 
Duma,  A.  A.  Boublikov,  an- 
nouncing the  abdication  of 
Nicholas  II  and  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment      231 

Viliuysk    Prison    232 

Moscow  Municipal  Duma 

Building     ....234 

Facsimile  of  the  project  of  the 
first  appeal  by  the  Provis- 
ional  Government    238-240 

"Izvestia"     243 

Facsimile  of  the  first  proof  of 
the  first  appeal  by  the  Pro- 
visional   Government    241 

Woman  Suffrage  Demonstra- 
tion  in   Petrograd    244 

A   revolutionary  poster 246 

A  detachment  of  troops  at  the 
front  taking  oath  of  loyalty 
to  Provisional   Government. 250 

Konovalov,  A.   1 259 

Guchkov,  A.  1 293 

Miliukov,    Prof.    Paul    N 330 

Second  Cabinet  347 

Root.   Elihu    383 

Bakhmeteff,  Prof.   Boris   A. . .   393 

Kerensky,  A.  F 407 

Kerensky,  A.  F 408 

Theatrical  Square  in  Moscow. 434 
Last  Provisional  Government. 487 


r 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  present  to  the  American 
people,  first,  the  great  movement  which  brought  Russia 
to  the  Revolution  of  March,  1917,  and  then,  as  far  as 
possible  by  documents,  the  development  of  the  Revolution 
from  March  up  to  date. 

The  Revolution  of  March,  1917,  was  the  outcome  of  a  great 
movement  which  started  a  century  ago.  immediately  after  the 
Napoleonic  War,  and  in  which  the  best  representatives  of 
Russia's  mind  and  soul  participated  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. The  first  revolutionary  uprising  in  Russia  was  the 
so-called  "Decembrist"  revolt,  on  December  14,  1825,  organized 
by  a  small  group  of  young  officers  who,  visiting  Paris  in  1814, 
had  become  infected  with  the  ideas  of  the  Great  French  Revo- 
lution. Five  Decembrists  were  executed,  the  others  were 
exiled  to  Siberia.  When  Russia's  greatest  national  poet,  Push- 
kin, sent  his  greeting  to  the  exiled  Decembrists,  they  answered 
him  from  Siberia,  "The  spark  will  burst  into  flame."  This 
prophesy  has  been  fulfilled.  While  in  1825  it  was  only  a  small 
group  of  young  idealists  who  rose  in  revolt  against  absolutism, 
by  1905  great  masses  were  engaged  in  open  conflict  with 
Tzarism.  and  in  1917  the  entire  people,  through  a  swift  and 
almost  bloodless  Revolution,  began  its  life  as  a  democratic 
nation. 

At  this  moment  Russia  is  in  a  state  of  temporary  disorgan- 
ization known  in  the  life  of  every  country  that  has  passed  from 
tyranny  to  free,  democratic  development.  Whatever  has  hap- 
pened in  Russia,  our  friends  should  not  be  too  pessimistic. 
Russia  is  not  an  old  man  dying  from  exhaustion,  she  is  a  child 
hurt  in  trying  to  walk  independently  for  the  first  time  in  her 
life.  She  is  young  and  strong,  and  her  people  have  already 
begun  to  understand  the  cruel  lesson.  With  the  help  of  her 
friends,  we  are  certain  Russia  will  be  able  to  emerge  from  the 
present  crisis. 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Until  the  March  Revolution  Russia  was  one  of  the  most 
pitiful  places  on  the  globe,  with  the  intellectuals  in  chains  and 
with  the  masses  in  poverty  and  in  darkness.  Nevertheless, 
even  under  the  old  regime,  there  was  a  light  shining  forth  from 
Russia  to  the  world,  the  light  of  Russia's  beautiful  culture: 
Russian  literature,  Russian  science,  Russian  philosophy,  Rus- 
sian music,  Russian  art. 

We  must  emphasize  that  this  Russian  culture,  known 
throughout  the  world,  was  not  the  product  of  the  intellectuals, 
of  the  Russian  "intelligentsia"  alone.  It  is  true  that  the  Russian 
"intelligentsia,"  crucified  in  prisons,  in  exile  and  on  the  scaffold, 
produced,  during  the  nineteenth  century  alone,  such  writers 
as  Pushkin,  Gogol,  Turgeniev,  Dostoievsky  and  Tolstoy ;  such 
musicians  as  Glinka,  Tchaykovsky,  Rimsky-Korsakov,  Mus- 
sorgsky and  Scriabin ;  such  scientists  as  Mendeleiev,  Lebedev 
and  Metchnikorr.  That  is  all  very  true,  but  there  is  something 
in  Russia's  culture  even  more  significant,  and  this  is  the  fact 
that  cultural  creation  in  Russia  was  not  the  monopoly  of  the 
intellectual  class  alone.  The  Russian  masses,  themselves,  in 
spite  of  their  poverty  and  darkness,  under  a  regime  of  horrible 
oppression,  created  a  beautiful  philosophy,  a  beautiful  litera- 
ture, a  beautiful  art.  As  a  matter  of  fact  such  writers  as 
Pushkin,  Gogol  and  Tolstoy  took  many  themes  and  figures 
from  the  literature  created  by  the  people  around  them,  the 
literature  which  has  been  in  existence  for  thousands  of  years, 
having  originated,  probably,  even  before  the  formation  of  the 
Russian  State,  and  orally  transmitted  from  generation  to 
generation. 

Glinka  and  Rimsky-Korsakov  took  their  beautiful  melodies 
from  the  folk  songs  which  can  be  heard  in  every  Russian  town 
and  in  every  village.  The  more  you  know  the  culture  created 
by  the  Russian  masses,  the  more  you  will  admire  it.  You  will 
admire  it  even  in  its  philosophy,  in  its  reflection  upon  the  most 
vital  problems  of  human  life.  Tolstoy  used  to  say  that  he 
learned  his  philosophy  from  an  old,  illiterate  Russian  peasant, 
Siutayev,  and  if  you  ever  have  the  chance  to  speak  with  old 
people  in  the  Russian  villages,  you  wili  be  surprised  to  find 


Introduction 


how  much  there  is  in  common  between  these  simple,  some- 
times naive  minds  and  the  trend  of  thought  of  the  greatest 
philosopher  and  thinker  produced  by  Russia. 

There  is  a  great  Russian  culture  in  existence,  not  as  a  cul- 
ture created  by  a  single  Russian  class  or  group,  but  as  a  culture 
of  Russia  as  a  nation.  We  must  also  state  that  Russia,  al- 
though a  composite  of  many  nationalities  speaking  different 
languages,  living  under  diverse  traditions,  nevertheless,  pre- 
sents a  national  unity,  not  only  in  its  vertical  crosscut,  but  also 
in  its  horizontal  structure.  We  may  imagine  the  future  Russia 
as  a  federated  republic,  with  every  nationality  enjoying  the 
fullest  measure  of  autonomy  and  self-government,  but  there 
will  be  one  great,  united  Russia,  with  every  nationality  loyal 
to  the  democratic  central  Government. 

Now,  when  Germany  is  planning  a  monarchic  restoration 
in  Finland,  it  is  possible  that  even  Finland,  through  its  democ- 
racy, will  strain  towards  reunion  with  Russia.  The  Ukrainian 
movement,  if  there  was  such  a  popular  movement,  was  never 
a  movement  aiming  at  separation  from  Russia.  In  the  summer 
of  1917,  when  the  Ukrainian  movement  was  in  full  swing,  one 
of  the  greatest  Russian  newspapers  delegated  a  very  talented 
writer  and  publicist,  Nicholas  Treniov,  to  the  Ukraine  to  find 
out  the  nature  of  this  movement.  Treniov's  answer  was  most 
interesting  and,  in  a  few  words,  may  be  put  as  follows :  "When 
I  am  among  the  intelligent  people  in  the  Ukraine,  I  feel  that 
there  is  in  existence  a  certain  cultural  movement.  I  hear 
people  trying  to  speak  Ukrainian,  arguing  with  all  the  fervor 
of  their  beings  that  the  Ukraine  has  a  right  to  a  cultural  and 
political  autonomy.  The  picture  changes  when  I  am  in  the 
streets,  in  the  public  squares,  among  the  masses.  They 
seem  to  be  interested  in  everything  in  the  world,  but  in  the 
question  of  Ukrainian  autonomy.  The  Ukrainian  movement 
is  just  a  movement  among  the  Ukrainian  intelligentsia." 

Whether  the  Ukraine  will  come  back  to  Russia  or  not. 
depends  very  much  upon  the  outcome  of  the  war.  There  are 
probably  reasons  for  believing  in  the  existence  of  a  Ukrainian 
culture,  but  this  culture  is  so  close  to  the  culture  of  Great 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Russia  that  volumes  are  written  with  the  special  purpose  of 
proving  that  there  is  a  Ukrainian  culture  in  existence.  The 
Ukrainians  are  justly  proud  of  their  great  poet,  Shevchenko, 
but  the  Great  Russians  love  him  and  consider  him  their  own. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  greatest  writers  of  the  Ukrainian 
nationality,  Gogol  and  Korolenko,  wrote  in  Russian  and  will 
live  forever  in  the  history  of  Russian  literature  and  culture. 

The  beauty  and  the  power  of  Russia's  culture  may  be  best 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  it  drew  to  itself  even  nationalities 
far  distant  from  the  Russian  in  their  historical  and  cultural 
traditions.  From  this  point  of  view,  of  special  interest  are  the 
Jewish  and  the  Caucasian  problems,  as  cultural  problems  in 
Russia. 

Under  the  regime  of  the  Tzars  life  was  difficult  for  almost 
everyone,  even  of  pure  Russian  blood.  Nevertheless,  the  tor- 
tures to  which  the  Jewish  population  in  Russia  were  subjected 
were  many,  many  times  more  painful  and  bitter.  In  spite  of 
it,  the  Russian  Jews  were  able  to  draw  a  definite  distinction 
between  the  autocracy  which  oppressed  them  and  the  great 
Russian  people  which,  through  its  best  representatives,  has 
always  defended  their  human  rights.  In  spite  of  their  terrible 
sufferings,  they  felt  the  immortal  beauty  of  Russia's  culture 
and  many  of  them  have  contributed  their  best  to  that  culture. 

If  we  take  the  history  of  Russian  paintings,  we  find  there, 
among  the  greatest  artists,  a  Jewish  name,  Levitan.  He  came 
into  Russian  art  at  a  very  significant  moment,  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  the  Russian  painters,  after  copying 
and  imitating  the  standards  of  art  in  other  countries,  had  come 
to  a  longing  to  bring  a  national,  Russian  motif  into  their  art. 
Many  tried,  but  only  Levitan  succeeded.  And  his  name  is 
forever  immortal  in  the  history  of  Russian  art,  and  his  paint- 
ings, presenting  the  beauty  and  something  which  I  would  call 
the  thoughtfulness  of  the  Russian  landscape,  are  known  to 
everyone  who  loves  Russia,  thinks  of  Russia  and  longs  for 
Russia. 

The  Jewish  name,  Antokolsky,  is  forever  connected  with  the 


Introduction 


history  of  Russian  sculpture  and  represents  an  epoch  in  this 
branch  of  Russia's  art.  If  we  take  the  history  of  Russian 
culture,  as  a  science  in  itself,  we  will  find  among  the  historians 
who  devoted  their  lives  to  studying  it,  the  Jewish  name, 
Gershensohn,  which  in  itself  represents  an  entire  school.  Tens 
of  prominent  names  may  be  presented  showing  that  the  Jewish 
people  are  closely  bound  up  with  the  Russian  culture,  that  in 
spite  of  their  experiences,  they  saw  in  Russia  not  a  stepmother, 
but  a  loving  mother.  This  is  true  not  only  about  the  Jews, — 
these  are  the  feelings  of  almost  every  nationality  historically 
bound  with  Russia. 

It  is  just  a  little  over  half  a  century  since  the  Caucasus  was 
conquered  by  Russia,  after  a  long  and  bloody  war.  If  there 
is  a  part  of  Russia  where  a  separatist  movement  could  arise, 
it  is  the  Caucasus,  with  its  language  and  culture  so  different 
from  the  Russian.  And  yet,  a  separatist  movement  in  the 
Caucasus  is  not  in  existence,  and  since  the  besfinninsr  of  the 
twentieth  century,  during  the  critical  years  for  Russia,  the 
Caucasus  has  produced  many  great  Russian  patriots,  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  among  whom  I.  G.  Tseretelli  mav  be 
mentioned   as   the   most   prominent.      Tseretelli,   or   as    he    is 

^ often  called  in  Russia,  "noble  Tseretelli,"  was  the  leader  of  the 
Social-Democratic  faction  in  the  Second  Duma.  He  was  sen- 
tenced to  life  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  in  Siberia  and,  after 
ten  years,  the  March  Revolution  set  him  free.     He  was  the 

*  Minister  of  Post  and  Telegraph,  and  later  the  Minister  of 
Interior  in  Kerensky's  Cabinet. 

Russia's  final  fate  is  not  yet  decided.  It  depends  very  much 
upon  the  outcome  of  the  war.  We  may  imagine  further  years 
of  conflict,  but  France,  England,  Italy  and  the  United  States 
will  stay  at  their  fighting  posts.  And  if  the  conflict  is  con- 
tinued, Russia  will  come  back.  We  may  imagine  years  of 
further  fighting  and  millions  of  new  sacrifices,  but  never  will 
democracy  submit  to  autocracy-  And  if  democracy  finally 
prevails,  the  new  Russian  Democracy  will  rise  to  the  man- 
hood which  will  make  her,  in  President  Wilson's  words,  "a 
fit  partner  for  a  League  of  Honor." 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Hope  for  Russia's  future  lies,  first  of  all,  in  the  strength  and 
beauty  and  young  vigor  of  Russia's  national  culture,  which  is 
a  culture  of  all  Russian  classes  and  of  almost  all  nationalities 
historically  bound  with  the  Russian  State.  After  the  period  of 
temporary  disintegration,  the  different  parts  of  Russia,  now 
torn  away  from  the  center,  such  parts  as  the  Ukraine,  the 
Baltic  Provinces,  the  Don  region,  the  Caucasus  and  Siberia, 
will  come  together,  not  only  because  economically  they  cannot 
exist  as  independent  States,  but  also  because  they  are  cul- 
turally united,  and  the  non-Russian  nationalities,  in  as  far  as 
they  inhabit  these  Provinces,  will  prefer  Orientation  towards 
democratic  Russia  to  orientation  towards  Germany,  Austria 
and  Turkey. 

Hope  for  Russia's  future  is  furthermore  built  on  the  hope 
for  every  democracy.  This  is  a  critical  moment  in  the  life  of 
humanity,  but  at  the  same  time,  what  a  significant  moment ! 
Young,  democratic  Russia  under  the  heels  of  Prussian 
Junkerdom — what  a  pitiful  picture !  But,  on  the  other  side, 
the  Allied  Democracies  with  their  iron  armies  in  defense 
of  the  principle  of  freedom,  with  their  leader,  the  leader  of 
civilization,  President  Wilson,  at  the  head!  Never  in  human 
history  was  the  brutality,  the  bestiality  of  men  better  repre- 
sented than  in  the  figure  of  the  German  Kaiser  making  his 
victorious  speeches  and  calling  the  old  German  Gott  his  faith- 
ful ally.  And  never,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  great  moral 
force,  the  beauty,  the  overwhelming  power  of  democratic 
civilization  better  represented  than  in  the  figure  of  the  glorious 
President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  speeches  and  statements, 
bringing  this  conflict  to  the  heights  of  a  great  moral  issue, 
making  this  war,  on  the  Allied  side,  as  he  recently  said,  a  war 
of  emancipation. 

The  Russian  situation  is  critical  but  not  hopeless,  and  it  is 
the  great  democracy  of  the  United  States  to  whom  we  mostly 
look  for  brotherly  help  at  this  difficult  period  in  our  national 
existence.  Among  the  many  friends  of  the  new  Russian 
Democracy,  President  Wilson  is  the  greatest.  As  long  as 
Russia  lives. — we  hope  that  she  will  recover  and  live  forever. — 


Introduction 


Russian  school  children  will  learn  the  story  of  the  great 
President  of  this  great  country,  who  in  the  most  critical  mo- 
ment in  Russia's  life  came  out  with  a  statement  in  her  defense 
and  declared  as  one  of  the  war  aims  of  the  Allies,  the  evacua- 
tion of  Russia's  territories  by  our  common  enemy,  and  the 
freedom  of  Russia's  political  development. 

Under  the  present  circumstances  we  had  to  finish  the  book 
with  the  pitiful  picture  of  Russia  under  the  rule  of  the  Bolshe- 
viki.  But,  we  still  believe  in  the  Russian  Democracy,  we 
believe  that  after  the  terrible  lesson,  the  constructive  forces 
in  the  young  country  will  gather  strength  daily,  and  it  is 
possible  that  the  time  is.  not  distant  when  Russia  will  begin 
to  see  the  light  of  a  new  and  brighter  life.  We  hope  that  at  the 
time  of  the  next  issue  of  this  book  the  tyrannic  rule  of  the  Bol- 
sheviki  will  be  already  a  matter  of  the  past,  and  Russia  will 
have  come,  through  a  Constituent  Assembly,  to  a  stable, 
democratic  government  and  to  a  democratic  order  without 
which  the  new  Democracy  can  neither  exist  nor  develop. 

As  time  passes  new  developments  will  appear  in  the  great 
process  of  the  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  documents  will  have  to  come  to  light  beiore  even 
the  past  stages  of  the  Revolution  will  be  entirely  clear.  The 
author  hopes  to  incorporate  these  new  materials  in  the  follow- 
ing issues  of  the  book.  It  is  possible  also  that  in  the  following 
issues  the  author  will  be  able  to  give  more  space  to  the  history 
of  the  Revolutionary  Movement  before  the  March  Revolution 
and  to  the  spiritual  leaders  of  the  Revolution.  One  of  the 
first  things  he  would  gladly  do  Avould  be  to  allow  space  for 
special  chapters  devoted  to  Alexander  Hertzen  and  N.  C. 
Mikhailovsky. 

The  author  considers  it  a  pleasant  duty  to  express  his  thanks 
to  Prof.  G.  V.  Lomonosoff,  D.  Leonidov,  Samuel  Lovitch, 
Moissaye  J.  Olgin.  E.  I.  Omelchenko,  D.  M.  Rubinow  and  V.  D. 
Soskice  for  their  kindness  in  supplying  the  author  with  a  num- 
ber of  the  photographs  appearing  in  this  book. 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


All  the  dates  in  the  book  are  given  according  to  the  new 
calendar.  In  tracing  the  revolutionary  developments  up  to 
the  present  war,  the  author  used  "St.  Petersburg"  instead  of 
Petrograd, — the  name  given  the  Capital  in  the  beginning  of 
war  with  Germany, — for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  his- 
torical color. 


Part  I 

The  History  of  the 
Revolutionary  Movement  in  Russia 


°\Hn^o_  \ 


THE  DECEMBRISTS 
Festel.  Ryleiev.  Bestuzshev-Riumin,  Muraviov  and  Kakhovsky. 


CHAPTER  I 
The   Decembrists — The  First  Russian  Revolutionists 

EVERYONE  who  watches  the  great  events  in  Russia 
may  have  noticed  that  the  Russian  revoluti  >nary 
crowds  sing-  the  Marseillaise.  This  is  symbolic  of 
the  deep  influence  which  the  great  French  Revolution  had  on 
the  entire  development  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Rus- 
sia. The  beginning  of  this  movement  dates  back  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  the  time  after  the 
Napoleonic  War.  when  many  young  Russian  officers,  returning 
to  their  homes  from  Paris,  brought  back  with  them  the  great 
democratic  ideas  which  inspired  the  French  Revolution.  These 
officers  laid  the  foundation  of  the  first  Russian  revolutionary 
organizations.    Some  of  these  organizations  ,had  but  a  brief  span 


20  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  life,  whereas  others  have  had  a  definite  effect  on  Russia's 
revolutionary  development. 

One  of  these  political  organizations  that  came  into  being  in 
St.  Petersburg  was  led  by  an  ambitious  young  officer  of  great 
ability  and  strong  will,  Pavel  Pestel,  an  adjutant  to  Prince 
Witgenstein.  It  was  known  as  the  "Union  of  Salvation." 
Pestel  organized  it  after  the  manner  of  Italian  secret  organiza- 
tions. It  was  divided  into  four  different  classes  or  degrees, 
with  different  rights,  very  much  like  the  Masonic  orders.  The 
Constitution  of  this  organization  called  for  an  initiation  with 
dreadful  oaths.  The  majority  of  the  members  were  young 
idealists,  many  not  even  in  their  twenties.  Their  aim  was  a 
constitutional  form  of  government. 

Soon  after  this  Society  was  organized  and  the  Constitution 
advocated  by  Pestel  accepted,  Pestel  left  St.  Peters- 
burg. Then  a  very  much  more  moderate  element  rose 
to  control  in  this  organization.  This  element  was  led 
by  a  new  member,  Mikhail  Muraviov,  who  influenced 
the  Society  to  change  not  only  its  Constitution  but 
its  name  as  well.  It  changed  its  name  to  the  "Union  of  Wel- 
fare" and,  casting  secrecy  aside,  became  in  reality  a  social 
welfare  organization.  Its  aims  were  fourfold :  educational, 
philanthropic,  economic  and  the  betterment  of  the  judiciary. 

The  educational  aim  expressed  itself  in  an  effort  to  spread 
education,  chiefly  in  the  army,  though  the  civilian  population 
in  some  instances  also  benefited  by  the  spread  of  the  so-called 
Lancasterian  schools.  In  these  schools  more  advanced  pupils 
taught  those  below  them.  The  philanthropic  aim  evinced 
itself  in  a  desire  to  help  those  in  need,  to  improve  conditions 
among  the  peasantry.  Though  the  "Union  of  Welfare"  did 
not  advocate  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  it,  however,  recom- 
mended kind  treatment  for  the  serfs.  To  insure  a  greater 
degree  of  justice,  some  of  the  members  undertook  service  in 
the  lower  courts.  As  for  the  economic  aim,  that  expressed 
itself  mainly  in  the  publishing  of  books  discussing  improve- 
ments in  the  financial  and  economic  affairs  of  the  country. 

Gradually  increasing  dissatisfaction  with  the  Government's 
policies  of  repression  moved  some  of  the  members  to  suggest 


The  Decembrists — The  First  Russian  Revolutionists  21 


P.  G.  KAKHOVSKY  P.  I.  PESTEL 

Executed  on  July  13,  1826. 

more  energetic  action  on  the  part  of  the  Society.  One  member 
even  offered  to  assassinate  the  Emperor,  if  the  Society  ap- 
proved. But  this  Society  was  too  timorous  for  more  energetic 
action,  as  we  shall  see.  In  1820  the  soldiers  of  a  St.  Petersburg 
regiment,  the  Semionovsky  Polk,  mutinied  because  the  Com- 
mander of  the  regiment  had  ordered  several  cavaliers  of  the  or- 
der of  St.  George  flogged.  By  law  they  were  exempt  from  such 
punishment.  The  officers  of  the  regiment,  most  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  "Union  of  Welfare,"  had  done  what  they  could 
to  prevent  the  mutiny,  but  had  not  succeeded.  When  it 
was  reported  to  the  Emperor  that  the  regiment  he  had  him- 
self once  commanded  had  mutineed,  he  refused  to  believe  that 
the  officers  were  innocent.  He  ordered  the  regiment  dis- 
banded and  the  officers  and  soldiers  scattered  among  many 
military  stations.  The  "Union  of  Welfare."  observing  the 
attitude  of  the  Government,  officially  disbanded  in  January. 
1821.  The  officers  of  the  disbanded  regiment  in  many  in- 
stances became  nuclei  for  revolutionary  propaganda  in  the 
various  parts  to  which  they  were  sent. 


22  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

When  the  news  of  the  complete  disbanding  of  the  "Union 
of  Welfare"  reached  Pestel,  who  was  then  in  Southern  Russia, 
where  a  branch  organization  was  in  existence,  he  and  his 
followers  refused  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  St.  Petersburg  or- 
ganization. Pestel's  branch  became  an  independent  organiza- 
tion, with  the  avowed  aim  of  a  republic  for  Russia,  to  be 
achieved  by  revolutionary  means.  They  readopted  Pestel's 
original  Constitution  and  organized  in  three  branches. 

Pestel  began  to  agitate  for  the  annihilation  of  the  entire 
Imperial  family.  He  and  the  leaders  of  the  other  two  branches 
of  the  Southern  Society  met  once  a  year,  from  1822  to  1825, 
but  could  not  agree  about  the  means  to  be  employed,  and  so 
the  question  was  annually  postponed. 

A  young  officer  of  the  Semionovsky  regiment,  Mikhail 
Bestuzshev-Riumin,  assistant  to  the  leader  of  one  of  the 
branches,  found  out  about  the  existence  of  another  revolu- 
tionary organization  called  the  "Society  of  United  Slavs." 
Their  idea  was  a  federated  republic  of  all  the  Slav  nations. 
He  induced  them  to  join  the  Southern  Society. 

In  1822,  when  the  officers  of  the  Semionovsky  regiment 
were  permitted  to  return  to  St.  Petersburg,  they  renewed 
their  former  activities  in  an  organization  called  the 
"Northern  Society."  Nikita  Muraviov.  a  son  of  one  of 
the  teachers  of  Alexander  I.  undertook  to  draw  up 
their  Constitution.  It  called  for  a  federated  constitutional 
monarchy.  Though  many  of  the  members  would  have 
preferred  a  republic,  they  saw  no  hope  for  so  radical  a  change. 
Russia  was  to  be  divided  into  thirteen  (later  the  Society  de- 
cided fifteen)  autonomous  provinces.  Each  province  was  to 
be  governed  by  its  own  Duma,  but  was  to  be  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  central  authority.  The  centra!  authority  was 
to  be  vested  in  a  council  called  "vieche."  which  alone  could 
declare  war.  peace  and  grant  amnesty.  It  was  also  to  have 
all  legislative  powers.  The  Monarch's  powers  were  to  be  very 
limited. 

On  the  other  hand.  Pestel's  Constitution  called  for  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government,  with  a  strong  centralized  admin- 
istration.     He   did   not    believe   any   monarchical   government 


c 
"I 
X 


24  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

could  be  expressive  of  the  will  of  the  people.  Pestel  would 
not  have  any  local  autonomy.  The  entire  country  must  be 
one  unit,  politically.  He  meant  to  make  Finland  a  part  of  this 
unit.  He  was  willing-  to  allow  Poland  to  separate  if  she 
promised  to  establish  a  form  of  government  similar  to  the  one 
in  Russia. 

In  Pestel's  republic  the  central  administration  was  to  be 
concentrated  in  a  body  consisting  of  five  Directors.  A  council 
called  "vieche"  was  to  hold  the  legislative  power.  All  land 
was  to  be  divided  into  communal,  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
people,  and  state  lands,  which  the  State  could  use  for  revenue 
or  dispose  of  at  its  discretion.  On  the  whole,  Pestel  believed 
that  the  primary  use  of  land  is  for  the  common  benefit  of  the 
masses. 

Pestel  agreed  that  Russia  was  not  ready  for  a  republic. 
He  believed  that  a  military  coup  d'etat  could  bring  about  the 
downfall  of  the  existing  form  of  government.  Then  he  intended 
to  organize  a  provisional  government  in  the  form  of  a  military 
dictatorship.  This  temporary  government  would  prepare  the 
people  for  a  republic  in  about  eight  or  ten  years. 

In  1824  Pestel  went  to  St.  Petersburg  and  tried  to  persuade 
the  "Northern  Society"  to  unite  with  the  "Southern  Society," 
but  the  St.  Petersburg  organization  was  opposed  to  Pestel's 
plans  to  establish  a  republic. 

These  two  organizations  were  representative  of  the  division 
in  views  among  revolutionary  circles  in  the  last  years  of  the 
reign  of  Alexander  I,  when  the  thinking  people,  the  "intelli- 
gentsia" had  come  to  realize  that  there  was  no  hope  of  miti- 
gating the  Government's  despotism  by  peaceful  means.  Even 
these  secret  Societies,  which  had  not  had  a  definitely  revolu- 
tionary program,  were  then  becoming  frankly  revolutionary. 

A-exander  I  died  unexpectedly  on  November  19,  1825. 
His  brother,  Constantine,  the  next  in  succession,  had  no  desire 
to  reign,  and  had  sent  Alexander  a  written  abdication  in  1822. 
Alexander  had  had  a  manifesto  to  that  effect  prepared  and 
had  appointed  his  brother  Nicholas  as  his  successor,  but  the 
manifesto  had  not  been  made  public.  Therefore,  before  Nich- 
olas declared  his  accession,  he  wanted  Constantine  to  come 


The  Decembrists — The  First  Russian  Revolutionists  25 

to  St.  Petersburg  and  confirm  the  abdication,  but  Constantine 
refused. 

In  the  brief  interregnum  that  occurred  while  the  two 
brothers  negotiated,  members  of  the  secret  Society  in  St. 
Petersburg  thought  they  saw  a  good  opportunity.  They  de- 
cided that  this  was  a  favorable  time  to  rise  in  revolt  and 
demand  a  constitution. 

A  number  of  officers  of  the  Guard  and  of  the  Navy,  members 
of  the  Northern  Society,  persuaded  one  regiment  of  the 
Guards,  several  companies  of  the  Guard — Marines  and  a  few 
isolated  soldiers  and  officers  that  Nicholas  had  no  lawful  right 
to  the  throne,  as  Constantine  had  not  abdicated.  On  December 
14,  when  the  accession  of  Nicholas  was  proclaimed,  these 
rebels,  strengthened  by  several  artillery-batteries,  gathered  on 
Senate  Square,  and  demanded  a  constitution.  They  let  it  be 
known  that  they  considered  Constantine  the  lawful  Emperor, 
and  they  refused  to  swear  allegiance  to  Nicholas. 

Two  emissaries  sent  by  Nicholas  to  negotiate  with  the 
rebels  were  shot  at.  The  civilian  population  began  to  join  the 
insurgents.  Then  Nicholas  ordered  a  cavalry  charge  and  the 
rebels  were  put  to  flight,  leaving  numbers  of  dead  and 
wounded.  The  Chief-of-Police  ordered  the  corpses  thrown 
into  the  ice-holes  on  the  Neva  River.  Report  had  it  that 
many  wounded  were  thrown  into  the  river  along  with  the  dead, 
because  Nicholas  had  ordered  a  hasty  clearing  of  the  scene 
of  the  insurrection.  A  number  of  corpses  froze  to  the  ice,  and 
so  it  was  forbidden  to  drink  the  water  or  cut  ice  in  that  part 
of  the  river  that  winter.  This  was  the  opening  scene  of  the 
reign  of  Nicholas  I. 

The  police  became  busy,  and  searches  and  arrests  in  St. 
Petersburg  were  numerous.  The  leaders  were  taken,  and  with 
them  hundreds  of  others,  many  having  no  knowledge  of  the 
conspiracy.  To  secure  his  personal  safety  and  the  safety  of  the 
Empire.  Nicholas  decided  to  study  all  the  causes  and  founda- 
tions of  the  insurrection  of  December  14.  Suspects  were  ar- 
rested all  over  Russia,  but  of  the  five  hundred  or  so  held,  only 
one  hundred  twenty  were  brought  to  trial. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  his  reign  Nicholas  I  gave  him- 


26  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

self  entirely  to  investigating  that  conspiracy,  neglecting  all 
other  State  affairs.  Judged  by  numbers  this  uprising  was  really 
a  small  affair,  but  Nicholas  spoke  and  acted  as  if  he  had  saved 
the  country  from  a  dreadful  calamity.  He  took  an  active  part 
at  the  trials,  as  he  called  them,  though  there  was  not  even  a 
form  of  trial.  The  prisoners  were  brought  before  a  Court 
consisting  of  members  of  the  State  Council,  senators,  three 
members  of  the  Synod  and  thirteen  other  members  appointed 
by  Nicholas.  Nicholas  himself  examined  some  of  the  De- 
cembrists (those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  December  upris- 
ing), exhibiting  throughout  his  bad  temper  and  the  cruelty 
of  his  nature.  Some  of  the  prisoners  were  not  even  questioned. 
They  were  simply  called  before  the  Court,  one  by  one,  to  hear 
sentence  passed  upon  them. 

According  to  the  verdict,  five  Decembrists, — Pestel,  Mura- 
viov,  Kakhovsky,  Bestuzshev-Riumin  and  Ryleiev, — were  sen- 
tenced to  be  quartered.  Nicholas  commuted  it  to  hanging. 
Thirty-one  more  were  sentenced  to  be  shot.  These  sentences 
were  commuted  to  imprisonment  at  hard  labor,  the  terms  rang- 
ing from  fifteen  and  twenty  years  to  life.  A  very  few  of  the 
officers  were  reduced  to  the  rank  of  ordinary  soldiers  for  life, 
but  the  majority  were  exiled  to  Siberia,  some  after  spending 
many  years  of  imprisonment  in  fortresses. 

In  his  desire  to  get  at  the  root  of  the  sedition,  Nicholas 
requested  some  of  the  prisoners  to  write  out  the  grievances  on 
which  their  disaffection  was  founded.  Some  of  the  Decem- 
brists handed  in  memoranda  without  special  request.  One  of 
the  secretaries  of  a  Committee  appointed  by  the  Emperor  to 
investigate  all  the  causes  of  the  conspiracy,  added  this  material 
to  the  result  of  the  Committee's  findings,  and  drew  up  a 
report  for  Nicholas.  He  found  that  it  was  necessary  to  grant 
the  country  clear,  definite  laws;  to  do  away  with  lingering 
court  proceedings  and  so  insure  a  greater  degree  of  justice ;  to 
put  commerce  and  industry  on  a  stable  foundation ;  to  support 
such  of  the  nobility  as  had  become  ruined  by  loans  in  credit- 
associations  ;  to  elevate  the  standard  of  morality  among  the 
clergy  ;  to  abolish  the  degrading  sale  of  men  ;  to  rebuild  the 
navy  ;  to  encourage  private  sea-faring;  to  ameliorate  conditions 


The  Decembrists — The  First  Russian  Revolutionists  27 

among  the  peasants ;  to  grant  education  in  accordance  with  the 
status  of  the  pupils;  in  fact,  to  rectify  abuses  and  improve 
conditions  wherever  necessary.  Nicholas  undertook  to  con- 
sider this  memorandum. 


N.  V.  STAXKEVITCH 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Revolutionary  Movement  During  the  Reign  Of  Nicholas  I 
and  the  First  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II 

IN  spite  of  this  promise,  the  reign  of  Nicholas  I  was  marked 
by  the  most  cruel  oppression,  and  revolutionary  sentiment 
in  Russia  continued  to  develop.  In  the  early  thirties  of 
the  nineteenth  century  Moscow  had  become  the  center  of 
revolutionary  thought.  Two  circles  of  student-radicals  were 
organized  in  the  University  of  Moscow.  One  was  led  by 
Alexander  Hertzen  and  the  other  by  Stankevitch.  The  mem- 
bers of  Hertzen's  circle  were  interested  mainly  in  social  and 
political  problems.  This  group  considered  themselves  the 
heirs  of  the  revolutionary  ideas  of  the  Decembrists.  Hertzen's 
circle  did  not  exist  very  long.     The  members  were  arrested 


During  the  Reign  of  Nicholas  I  29 

for  singing  revolutionary  songs,  at  a  party  given  upon  their 
graduation  from  the  University.  After  severa1  months  under 
arrest,  they  were  exiled  to  provinces  far  from  Moscow. 

The  members  of  Stankevitch's  circle  were  interested  mostly 
in  philosophy  and  ethics.  Bakunin,  the  famous  revolutionist 
about  whom  we  shall  speak  later,  was  not  then  in  Russia,  but 
he  joined  this  circle  from  abroad. 

Nicholas  I,  seeing  that  the  intellectuals,  the  so-called 
"'intelligentsia,"  were  becoming  more  and  more  imbued  with 
revolutionary  ideas,  decided  to  adopt  special  "educational" 
measures.  His  Minister  of  Education,  Uvarov,  agreed  with 
him  that  education  must  aim  to  inculcate  a  firm  belief  in  the 
conservative  principles  of  Orthodoxy,  Absolutism  and  Nation- 
ality. It  was  his  aim  to  guard  the  Russian  youth  against  the 
infiltration  of  any  West-European  or  revolutionary  ideas.  To 
inculcate  these  conservative  principles,  everything  was  done  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  education  and  the  liberty  of  thought. 
Uvarov  is  known  to  have  said  that  he  would  "die  in  peace" 
if  he  could  succeed  in  keeping  new  ideas  from  filtering  into 
Russia  for  about  half  a  century. 

The  French  Revolution  of  1848  served  to  rouse  Nicholas  I 
to  even  greater  reactionary  measures,  for  he  hoped  thereby  to 
prevent  the  revolutionary  spirit  from  entering  Russia.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  French  Revolution  served  to  foment  revolu- 
tionary thought  among  the  "intelligentsia."  In  St.  Petersburg, 
in  Moscow  and  even  in  the  provinces,  radical  circles  came 
into  existence  fast.  All  these  circles  were  known  to  one  an- 
other. They  met  at  private  homes  where  they  spent  evenings 
discussing  social,  political  and  literary  problems.  They  argued 
juridical  problems,  they  exchanged  views  on  the  peasant  ques- 
tion, they  declared  for  freedom  of  the  press,  they  read  literary 
selections  that  did  not  dare  to  appear  in  the  open  press,  and 
they  discussed  the  political  situation  in  Western  Europe.  Two 
magazines  that  had  been  greatly  responsible  for  influencing 
progressive  thought  among  these  young  men  were  the  "Annals 
of  the  Fatherland"  and  the  "Contemporary."  The  famous 
writer,  Vissarion  Bielinsky,  the  leading  spirit  of  the  "Annals 


30  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  the  Fatherland,"  who  had  then  become  extremely  revolu- 
tionary, had  disciples  throughout  all  Russia. 

These  revolutionary  tendencies  among-  the  "intelligentsia" 
frightened  Nicholas  and  his  reactionary  advisers.  He  appoint- 
ed a  Committee  to  look  into  the  matter,  the  "Buturlin  Com- 
mittee," to  watch  the  press  and  examine  art'cles  even  after 
they  were  passed  by  the  regular  censor.  The  censorship  be- 
came crazed,  and  there  were  instances  when  the  Government 
of  Nicholas  I  punished  men,  who  themselves  as  censors  in 
the  past,  had  passed  articles  or  verses  in  which  were  now 
found  symptoms  of  disloyalty.  The  famous  writer,  Turgeniev. 
was  arrested  in  1852,  through  a  report  of  the  censor.  A  group 
of  Russian  intelligent  people,  the  Petrashevsky  Circle,  was 
tried,  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  execution  just  because 
they  had  dared  to  spend  evenings  together  discussing  West- 
European  political  and  social  problems.  They  were  forced  to 
go  through  preparations  for  execution,  to  highten  them. 
Twenty  men  were  finally  sentenced  to  hard  labor  with  exile 
to  Siberia.  One  of  these  men  sentenced  to  hard  labor  was  the 
world-famous  writer,  F.  M.  Dostoievsky. 

Not  only  the  press  suffered,  not  only  the  schools  and  uni- 
versities were  subjected  to  most  violent  repression,  but  even 
such  rights  as  the  right  to  travel  were  trespassed  upon,  and 
no  one  could  leave  Russia  without  the  personal  permission 
of  the  Emperor.  The  Civil  Service  Statute  was  modified  to 
empower  the  authorities  to  dismiss  any  official  considered 
politically  untrustworthy,  without  any  form  of  trial,  without 
any  explanation. 

In  1853  the  war  with  Turkey  came.  The  results  of  bureau- 
cratic inefficiency  became  so  evident  that  a  challenging  atti- 
tude towards  the  Government  began  to  awaken  even  among 
the  conservative  elements  of  society.  Military  equipment  at 
the  front  was  scant,  ammunition  and  food  supplies  lacking, 
while  carts,  horses  and  oxen  were  being  heavily  requisitioned 
in  the  Southern  Provinces.  It  was  very  evident  that  the  theft 
of  supplies  and  State  moneys  was  being  extensively  carried 
on  by  those  in  charge  of  supplying  the  army.  Quantities  of 
bandages  prepared  in  the  Capitals  not  only  did  not  reach  the 


YISSARION  BIELINSKY 


One  of  Russia's  foremost  critics  and  publicists.  Through  his 
enthusiasm,  eloquence  and  lofty  idealism,  Bielinsky  exercised  a 
tremendous  influence  over  the  youth  of  his  generation.  Repre- 
senting the  progressive  ideas  of  his  time,  he  strongly  advocated 
the  abolition  of  serfdom.     Died  on  May  26.  1848. 


32  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

army,  but  were  actually  sold  to  the  enemy  by  the  officials 
through  whose  hands  these  goods  had  to  pass.  As  a  result., 
even  among  the  masses  resentment  was  felt,  and  the  mobilized 
militia  gave  way  -to  riots  and  similar  disorders,  refusing  to 
obey  the  police  officials. 

On  the  crest  of  this  crisis  Nicholas  I  passed  away. 


ALEXANDER  II,  the  son  of  Nicholas  I,  had  stood  strictly 
by  his   father  in  all  his  obscurantist  measures.     But 
"  Russia's  failures  in  the  Crimean  War  had  made  him 
see  the  need  for  reforms. 

At  the  very  outset  of  his  reign,  he  dismissed  the  Buturlin 
Committee,  that  had  terrorized  the  press,  abolished  the  restric- 
tions imposed  upon  the  universities  after  1848  and  granted 
permission  for  the  issuance  of  passports  for  going  abroad. 
Then  came  a  long  period  of  agitation  for  the  abolition  of 
serfdom.  As  a  result  of  this  agitation,  Alexander  appointed 
a  Committee  to  draw  up  a  project  to  cover  the  entire  problem. 
And  during  this  period  even  the  radicals  hailed  Alexander  as 
a  hero. 

The  press,  emboldened  by  these  tendencies  in  the  Govern- 
ment, had  taken  to  discussing  the  peasant  question  quite 
freeiy,  and  by  1861  it  was  actually  discussing  all  the  political 
and  social  questions  of  the  day.  The  leading  spirit  of  the 
"intelligentsia"  at  that  time  was  Alexander  Hertzen,  who  was 
then  living  in  London,  where  he  published  his  famous  "Bell." 
Hertzen,  knowing  Russia  and  her  needs  thoroughly,  and 
writing  in  London,  could  speak  out  even  more  openly.  In 
1860  he  went  so  far  as  to  publish  projects  for  practically  the 
reorganization,  of  Russia's  social  system,  through  peasant- 
reform. 

The  Act  of  Liberation  of  1861  gave  the  peasants  their  free- 
dom, under  overwhelming  obligations.  The  sting  of  serf  was 
removed,  and  for  that  the  peasants  were  grateful,  but  the 
conditions  governing  the  redeeming  of  the  land  were  far  from 
satisfactory.  The  peasants  had  expected  their  land  clear 
of  ^any  compensation.  Instead,  they  were  made  to  pay  so 
heavily  that  the  redemption  became  a  matter  of  tens  of  years. 


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The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


The  radical  circles  were  very  disappointed,  and  mistrust  of  the 
policy  of  the  Government  again  began  to  assert  itself. 

The  peasants  could  not  believe  that  their  Tzar  had  given 
them  that  kind  of  freedom,  and  accused  the  landowners  of 
concealing  the  "real  freedom"  and  giving  them  a  "forged 
freedom."  Disturbances  and  even  bloodshed  occurred.  In 
one  village,  the  Governor-General,  appointed  by  Alexander  II 
for  just  such  emergencies,  ordered  his  soldiers  to  fire  at  the 
peasants.  More  than  one  hundred  twenty-five  peasants  were 
killed  and  wounded.  A  young  professor  and  students  of  the 
Kazan  University  arranged  for  a  requiem  mass  for  these  poor 
peasants.  The  monks  who  officiated  at  this  mass  were  exiled 
by  Alexander  himself.  This  was  the  first  manifestation  of 
dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  the 
Government  had  met  it  in  its  own  way.  It  foreshadowed 
the  despotic  policy  Alexander  adopted  after  1866.  Naturally 
the  "intelligentsia"  were  deeply  moved  by  these  outrages. 

Even  the  nobles,  the  more  liberal  among  them,  then  began  to 
see  the  great  need  for  fundamental  reforms.  Early  in  1862  the 
nobles  of  the  Province  of  Tver  drew  up  a  resolution  call- 
ing for  reform  in  the  financial  system  of  the  State,  for  the 
establishment  of  independent  and  public  courts,  for  full  pub- 
licity in  all  departments  of  the  administration  so  as  to  create 
confidence  in  the  Government,  and  for  the  abolition  of  class- 
distinctions,  for  the  furtherance  of  which  they  willingly  re- 
nounced all  their  class-privileges.  They  concluded  by  declaring 
that  these  reforms  could  not  be  realized  through  governmental 
measures.  They  did  not  consider  the  Government  in  a  position 
to  accomplish  them.  "The  only  road  to  the  free  institutions 
to  which  these  reforms  lead  is  an  assembly  of  men  elected  by 
the  entire  nation,  without  any  difference  of  class,"  was  their 
conclusion.  The  Government's  response  was  plain  :  thirteen  of 
the  signers  of  this  resolution  were  committed  to  the  fortress 
prison  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  after  five  months  they  were 
sentenced  to  two  years  further  imprisonment. 

The  famous  revolutionist,  Prince  Peter  Kropotkin,  who,  as 
page-de-chambre  to  Alexander  II.  had  had  every  opportunity 
to  study  the  Emperor  at  first  hand,  says  of  him  in  his  "Memoirs 


ALEXANDER  HERTZEN 
Famous  publicist.  Was  arrested  in  1834.  exiled  to  Perm.  Later  trans- 
ferred to  Viatka  and  from  there  to  Vladimir.  Exerted  a  powerful 
influence  over  the  minds  of  the  Russian  intelligentsia  of  his  time. 
Through  his  "Colocol"  (Bell),  the  first  free  Russian  political  publica- 
tion, issued  in  London,  he  moulded  public  opinion  during  the  period 
of  reforms,  in  the  sixties,  and  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  libera- 
tion of  the  serfs. 


PRINCE  PETER   KROPOTKIN 


The  First  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II 


of  a  Revolutionist"  :  "Alexander  II  had  retained  too  much  of  the 
despotic  character,  of  his  father.  . .  He  easily  lost  his  temper  .  .  . 
He  was  not  what  one  would  describe  as  a  truly  reliable  man, 
either  in  his  policy  or  in  his  personal  sympathies,  and  he  was 
vindictive.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  men  in  his  nearest  surroundings 
were  of  the  worst  description.  .  .  .  From  the  beginning  of  1862 
he  commenced  to  show  himself  capable  of  reviving  the  worst 
practices  of  his  father's  reign.  .  .  .  The  slightest  disturbance 
was  repressed  under  his  orders  with  a  stern  severity :  he  took 
each  movement  as  a  personal  offense  so  that  at  any  moment 
one  might  expect  from  him  the  most  reactionary  measures."* 
In  commercial  and  industrial  circles  also,  the  oppositional 
movement  was  coming  to  life.  For  some  reason  the  Govern- 
ment had  lowered  the  rate  of  interest  paid  on  deposits  in 
governmental  credit-institutions.  The  building  of  railroads, 
which  began  at  that  time,  had  been  given  over  to  foreign 
capitalists,  and  Russian  capitalists  had  been  forced  to  invest 
in  short-lived  undertakings.  Many  had  lost  heavily.  There 
had  been  an  unwarranted  increase  in  the  number  of 
commercial  and  industrial  undertakings,  immediately  after 
the  Crimean  war,  and  many  of  those  had  collapsed.  So 
dissatisfaction  with  the  Government  was  rife  among  the  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  circles.  Progressive  merchants  began 
to  contribute  money  for  educational  purposes,  and  by  their 
attitude  towards  the  progressive  press  manifested  their 
sympathy  with  liberalism. 

The  revolutionary  spirit  of  some  of  the  progressive  publica- 
tions grew  fast.  The  Government  was  alarmed  as  it  observed 
this  spread  of  opposition  and  radicalism.  In  the  fall  of  1861 
and  an  1862,  proclamations  breathing  revolution  began  to 
appear.  One  proclamation  naively  called  for  the  complete 
abolition  of  any  form  of  police,  and  threatened  the 
Government  with  the  fall  of  the  dynasty  if  the  necessary 
reforms  were  not  accomplished.  It  asserted  that  Russia 
did  not  need  a  monarch,  that  an  elected  Elder,  who 
should  receive  a  salary,  would  serve  Russia's  interests  best. 


•"Memoirs  of  a  Revolutionist,"  P.  Kropotkin,  pp.  149-15*. 


)8  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Another  proclamation  directly  called  for  a  revolution, 
a  bloody  one,  exterminating  all  who  were  not. on  the  side  of  the 
revolution.  These  were  from  all  appearances  the  work  of  two 
young"  men,  acting-  on  their  own  initiative.  It  could  not  be 
proven  that  they  h^d  any  party  behind  them.  But  the  Govern- 
ment, in  its  fear,  began  to  arrest.  The  supposed  authors  of 
those  two  proclamations  were  arrested.  Anybody  who  had 
had  any  relations  with  Alexander  Hertzen,  abroad,  was  ar- 
rested. Many  representatives  of  the  progressive  press  were 
arrested.  Among  these  was  the  famous  economist,  Cherny- 
shevsky,  who  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years  at  hard  labor. 
Several  progressive  publications  were  entirely  suppressed. 

On  April  4,  1866,  a  young  student.  Dmitri  Karakozov, 
made  an  attempt  on  the  life  of  Alexander  II.  The  incident 
made  an  ineradicable  impression  on  Alexander.  His  followers 
made  capital  of  it  and  started  him  from  a  self-contradic- 
tory policy  of  moderate  reforms  mixed  with  repressive  meas- 
ures, on  the  road  of  definite  reaction. 

The  tendencies  of  thought  of  the  younger  generation  were 
held  to  be  responsible,  and  to  prevent  any  further  fomentation, 
an  extreme  reactionary,  Count  Dmitri  Tolstoy,  was  appointed 
Minister  of  Education.  The  various  Ministeis  were  in  turn 
supplanted  by  reactionaries.  General  Shuvaloff  as  chief  of 
the  state  police,  and  General  Trepoft  as  chief  cf  the  Petrograd 
police,  both  unscrupulous,  corrupt,  cruel,  soon  became  the  real 
rulers  of  Russia.  Playing  on  Alexander's  fears  of  a  revolution, 
they  made  him  sign  the  most  violently  reactionary  measures. 
If  Alexander  demurred  when  they  sought  his  signature  to 
some  new  act  of  repression,  mentioning  the  reforms  of  the  be- 
ginning of  his  reign,  Shuvaloff  would  organize  a  hunting  party 
to  the  forests  of  Novgorod.  Surrounded  by  courtiers,  hunters 
and  ballet  girls,  Alexander,  excited  by  the  chase,  would  sign 
any  scheme  of  repression  or  thievery  Shuvaloff  wanted. 

Through  the  activity  of  Dmitri  Tolstov.  the  new  Minister 
of  Education,  the  curriculum  of  the  higher  schools,  the 
gymnasia,  was  changed.  The  study  of  natural  science  was 
eliminated,  the  time  given  to  the  study  of  history,  geography 
and   modern   languages  was  very  much   shortened,  for  those 


X.  G.  CHERNYSHEVSKY 

Famous  economist  and  publicist.    Was  arrested  in  1862.    After  two 

years'   confinement    in   the    Fortress   of   St.    Peter   and    Paul,    was 

sentenced  to  seven  years'  hard  labor,  which  term  was  followed  by 

exile  to  Viluisk.  Siberia.     Died  Oct.   17.  1889. 


40  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

studies,  according  to  Dmitri  Tolstoy,  turned  youths  to  "sense- 
less highbrows,"  trained  them  to  form  "premature,  hasty  con- 
clusions." That  was  his  charge  against  the  subjects  that  make 
for  independent  thinking.  Instead  he  introduced  an  im- 
possible number  of  hours  of  Latin  and  Greek.  Absolute 
obedience  was  to  be  inculcated,  and  espionage  was  introduced 
in  the  guise  of  "confidence  and  frankness"  on  the  part  of  the 
pupils  towards  their  teachers. 

Then  the  Government  turned  its  attention  to  the  courts 
that  had  been  dispensing  justice  too  mildly  in  cases  of  viola- 
tion of  the  censorship.  To  prevent  further  "mildness,"  a  new 
Minister  of  Justice  was  appointed,  Von  Pahlen,  a  man  in  keep- 
ing with  the  rest  of  the  reactionary  administration.  From 
then  on  appeared  many  additions  and  modifications  of  the  laws 
so  that,  soon  the  original  liberal  intent  was  absolutely 
destroyed. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Revolutionary  and  Liberal  Movement  During  the  Latter 
Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II 

NEVERTHELESS,  all  these  measures  could  not  destroy 
either  the  development  of  Russian  political  thought, 
or  the  revolutionary  spirit  spreading  in  the  country. 
In  the  early  sixties  there  had  appeared  for  the  first  time  in 
Russian  literature  writers  who  were  of  the  common  people. 
They  became  known  as  the  Narodnichestvo  school  of  writers. 
Up  to  that  time  Russia's  literature  had  been  almost  wholly 
the  creation  of  nobles.  These  new  writers  were  close  to  the 
people,  and,  in  their  writings,  painted  most  impressively  the 
terrible  economic  and  cultural  conditions  under  which  the 
peasants  were  living  since  "liberation,"  without  .land.  In 
the  latter  sixties  an  unfortunate  combination  of  crop  failures, 
in  some  provinces,  together  with  the  over-burdening  system 
of  taxation  was  bearing  fruit.  A  terrific  famine  raged,  and 
many  peasants  were  actually  dying  of  starvation.  These 
writers  of  the  people  painted  conditions  among  the  suffering 
peasants  so  vividly  that  the  younger  generation  of  the  "intelli- 
gentsia" was  roused  to  action. 

These  young  people  held  that  they  had  been  enabled  to 
enjoy  a  cultural  life  only  at  the  expense  of  the  masses.  There- 
fore it  was  their  duty  to  go  among  the  masses  and  do  what 
they  could  in  return.  During  1868 — 1869  there  were  many 
manifestations  of  protest  against  the  Government,  among  the 
University  students,  who  were  deeply  affected  by  the  condi- 
tions of  the  peasants  suffering  from  famine,  in  the  Province 
of  Smolensk.  Numbers  of  the  students  were  expelled  and 
transported  to  their  homes.  Scattered  over  Russia  they  im- 
mediately began  to  spread  the  very  ideas  for  the  holding  of 
which  they  had  been  expelled. 

Just  about  that  time  M.  A.  Bakunin,  a  young  nobleman  an'l 
a  former  officer  in  the  artillery,  but  then  in  exile,  living  in 
Geneva,   had   practically   formulated   for  the   radical  younger 


42  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


generation  their  tasks,  called  forth  by  the  needs  of  the  moment. 
Bakunin,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  theory  of  anarchism,  held 
that  the  first  task  in  the  achievement  of  progress  was  the  free- 
ing of  one's  personality  by  casting  off  all  religious  beliefs. 
The  second  point  of  his  formula  called  for  truth  and  justice  in 
social  forms.  He  pointed  out  clearly  that  by  truth  and  justice 
in  social  forms,  he  meant  a  social  order  built  on  the  economic 
and  social  liberation  of  the  people,  through  the  abolition  of 
hereditary  property.  All  land,  according  to  his  views,  had  to 
be  transferred  to  agricultural  communes,  and  the  factories, 
means  of  production  and  capital — to  labor  associations.  He 
insisted  on  the  granting  of  equal  rights  to  women,  the  abolition 
of  marriage  and  family.  Public  education  was  to  be  open  to 
all  children.  But  all  this  could  only  be  realized  by  beginning 
with  a  complete  annihilation  of  the  State.  He  pointed  out 
that  no  matter  what  the  form  of  Government,  social  and  eco- 
nomic freedom  were  impossible,  for  all  Government  is  founded 
on  compulsion  and  the  authority  of  one  group  over  the  rest 
of  the  people. 

Bakunin  advised  leaving  the  universities  and  going  among 
the  people,  not  simply  to  teach  them,  but  to  arouse  them 
against  the  existing  conditions  of  society.  No  real  progress 
was  possible,  he  held,  until  that  social  order  was  completely 
overthrown.* 

Just  about  this  time,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventies,  there 
came  into  existence,  among  the  Russian  "intelligentsia,"  a 
group  whose  purpose  it  was  to  go  among  the  people,  to  teach 
them  to  read  and  write,  to  spread  good  books  among  them, 
and  also  the  ideal  of  a  better  social  order.  This  group  was 
called  the  Circle  of  Tchaykovsky,  after  one  of  their  number. 
The  well-known  revolutionist,  Prince  Peter  Kropotkin  was  a 
member  of  this  Circle.  In  his  "Memoirs  of  a  Revolutionist" 
Prince  Kropotkin  says  of  the  Circle :  "They  began  to  spread 
good  books.  They  bought  the  works  of  Lassalle,  Bervi  (on 
the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  in  Russia),  Marx,  Russian 
historical  works,  and  so  on, — whole  editions, — and  distributed 


♦Further  details  about  BaJ-'unin  are  given  on  pp.  171-179,  in  special  chapter 
devoted  to  this  spiritual  leader  of  the  Russian  revolutionary  movement. 


MIKHAIL   BAKUNIN 

One  of  the  spiritual  leaders  of  the  Russian  Revolutionary 

Movement. 


NICHOT&Y  TCHAIKOVSKY 

. 

Founder  of  the  Tchayko'rsky  Circle,  which  played  a  '-very  important 
role  in  the  Russian  Revolutionary  Movement.  Persecuted  by  the  Police, 
Tchaykovsky  left  Russia.  The  Revolution  of  190$  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  return  home.  Until  now  Tchaykovsky,  at  the  age  of  68.  plays 
a  very  important  role  in  Russia's  political  and  social  life,  being  one  of 
the  leaders  of  Peasant  and  Cooperative  Movements. 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  45 

thein  among  students  in  the  provinces.  In  a  few  years  there 
was  not  a  town  of  importance  in  'thirty-eight  provinces  of 
the  Russian  Empire,'  to  use  official  language,  where  this  Circle 
did  not  have  a  group  of  comrades  engaged  in  the  spreading 
of  that  sort  of  literature."* 

Speaking  further  of  this  Circle,  Kropotkin  adds :  "We  often 
spoke,  of  course,  of  the  necessity  of  a  political  agitation  against 
our  absolute  government.  We  saw  already  that  the  mass  of 
the  peasants  were  being  driven  to  unavoidable  and  irremedi- 
able ruin  by  foolish  taxation,  and  by  still  more  foolish  selling 
off  of  their  cattle  to  cover  the  arrears  of  taxes.  We  'vision- 
aries' saw  coming  that  complete  ruin  of  a  whole  population 
which  by  this  time,  alas,  has  been  accomplished  to  an  appalling 
extent  in  Central  Russia,  and  is  confessed  by  the  government 
itself.  We  knew  how,  in  every  direction,  Russia  was  being 
plundered  in  a  most  scandalous  manner.  We  knew,  and  we 
learned  more  every  day,  of  the  lawlessness  of  the  functionaries, 
and  the  almost  incredible  bestiality  of  many  among  them.  We 
heard  continually  of  friends  whose  houses  were  raided  at  night 
by  the  police,  who  disappeared  in  prisons,  and  who — we  ascer- 
tained later  on — had  been  transported  without  judgment  to 
hamlets  in  some  remote  province  of  Russia.  We  felt,  there- 
fore, the  necessity  of  a  political  struggle  against  this  terrible 
power,  which  was  crushing  the  best  intellectual  forces  of  the 
nation.  But  we  saw  no  possible  ground,  legal  or  semi-legal, 
for  such  a  struggle.  .  . 

"Every  young  man  of  democratic  tastes,  every  young  woman 
following  a  course  of  higher  education,  was  a  suspect  in  the 
eyes  of  the  State  Police,  and  was  denounced  by  Katkofff  as  an 
enemy  of  the  State.  Cropped  hair  and  blue  spectacles  worn  by 
a  girl,  a  Scotch  plaid  worn  in  winter  by  a  student,  instead  of 
an  overcoat,  which  were  evidences  of  nihilist  simplicity  and 
democracy,  were  denounced  as  tokens  of  'political  unreliabil- 
ity.' If  any  student's  lodging  came  to  be  frequently  visited 
by  other  students,  it  was  periodically   invaded   by   the   State 


*Op.  cit..  p.  305 

tKatkoff,  the  Editor  of  the  "Moscow  Viedomosti,"  was  one  of  the  leading 
reactionary  figures  in  Russia  at  that  time. 


46  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Police  and  searched.  So  common  were  the  night  raids  in  cer: 
tain  students'  lodgings  that  Kelnitz*  once  said,  in  his  mildly 
humorous  way,  to  the  police  officer  who  was  searching  the 
rooms :  'Why  should  you  go  through  all  our  books,  each 
time  you  come  to  make  a  search?  You  might  as  well  have  a 
list  of  them,  and  then  come  once  a  month  to  see  if  they  are  all 
on  the  shelves ;  and  you  might,  from  time  to  time,  add  the 
titles  of  the  new  ones.'  The  slightest  suspicion  of  political 
unreliability  was  sufficient  ground  upon  which  to  take  a  young 
man  from  a  high  school,  to  imprison  him  for  several  months, 
and  finally  to  send  him  to  some  remote  province  of  the  Urals — 
'for  an  undetermined  term,'  as  they  used  to  say  in  their  bureau- 
cratic slang.  Even  at  the  time  when  the  Circle  of  Tchaykov- 
sky  did  nothing  but  distribute  books,  all  of  which  had  been 
printed  with  the  censor's  approval,  Tchaykovsky  was  twice 
arrested  and  kept  some  four  to  six  months  in  prison.  .  .  . 
In  fact,  it  was  a  favorite  dream  of  Alexander  II,  to  have  some- 
where in  the  steppes  a  special  town,  guarded  night  and  day  by 
patrols  of  Cossacks,  where  all  suspected  young  people  could 
be  sent,  so  as  to  make  of  them  a  city  of  ten  or  twenty  thou- 
sand inhabitants.  Only  the  menace  which  such  a  city  might 
some  day  offer  prevented  him  from  carrying  out  this  truly 
Asiatic  scheme."! 

The  Tchaykovsky  Circle  was  helped  in  its  propaganda  by 
the  students,  who.  expelled  from  the  universities  and  scattered 
over  Russia,  had  spread  the  seed  of  revolutionary  thought.  As 
a  result,  many  circles,  similar  to  the  Tchaykovsky  Circle, 
sprang  up  all  over  Russia. 

The  spiritual  center  of  the  revolutionary  movement  at 
tha^  time  was  Zurich,  wiiere  the  girl-students,  who  were  not 
able  to  obtain  higher  education  in  Russia,  had  gone  to  study. 
Part  of  the  expelled  men-students  had  also  gone  there.  These 
Zurich  students  held  discussions,  readings  and  daily  lectures. 
A  oermanent  lecturer  at  this  colony  was  the  famous  revolu- 
tionarv  thinker  and  teacher,  P.  Lavrov,  a  former  colonel  and 
professor  at  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy  for   Military  Juris- 


*Kelnitz   is   the   fictitious   name   lor   Kropotkin's   friend    who    introduced 
him   to  the  Circle  of  Tchavkovsky. 
tOp.  cit.,  pp.  308-310. 


'    1 

fe\^i  ft 

^^^^^ 

NICHOLAY  MOROZOV 

Born  in  1854.  At  nineteen  joined  Tchaykovsky's  Circle.  Was  arrested 
in  1875  and  imprisoned  for  two  years.  Joined  the  party  "'Land  and 
Freedom,"  and,  upon  its  dissolution, — the  party  "Will  of  the  People.' 
In  1880  went  abroad,  was  arrested  on  the  frontier  and  sentenced  fo 
hard  labor  for  life.  Served  his  sentence  in  the  Fortress  of  Schliissel- 
burg.  Altogether  Morozov  spent  over  twenty-five  years  in  prison, 
being  freed  during  the  Revolution  of  1905. 

In  prison  Morozov  occupied  himself  with  scientific  problems.  After 
his  release,  he  published  many  books:  "Periodic  Systems  of  the  Com- 
position of  Matter,"  "D.  I.  Mendeleyev  and  the  Significance  of  His 
Periodic  System  for  the  Future  of  Chemistry."  "The  Principli 
Qualitative  Physico-Mathematical  Analysis"  and  many  others,  devoted 
partly  to  physico-mathematical  and  party  to  physico-chemical  prob- 
lems. These  works  were  prepared  principally  during  his  stay  in  the 
Fortress.     Morozov  is  still  alive  and   working,   in    Russia. 


PETER  LAVROV 

prudence.  Lavrov  taught  peaceful  preparation  of  the  masses 
for  a  future  revolution.*  Bakunin,  on  the  other  hand,  was  for 
immediate  action.  He  argued  for  the  organization  of  revolt, 
considering  even  small  uprisings  effective  propaganda. 

The  Government,  frightened  at  the  increasing  size  of  the 
colony  at  Zurich  and  the  agitation  of  Lavrov  and  Bakunin, 
issued  an  order  for  all  students  to  return  to  Russia  by 
January  1,  1874.  It  held  out  threats  of  future  difficulties 
for  any  who  did  not  heed  the  Government's  voice.  It  offered 
not  to  oppose  the  opening  of  institutions  of  higher  education 
for  women,  in  Russia. 

The  Zurich  colony  listened  to  the  voice  of  authority  for  it 
realized  its  opportunity.  The  students  returned,  but  they  re- 
turned with  the  intention  of  going  out  among  the  people,  not 
with  the  intent  to  study.  Aiding  the  circles  already  in  exist- 
ence in  Russia,  they  scattered  among  the  peasants,  to  teach 
them  and  to  propagate  their  social  ideal. 

But  in  a  very  short  time  this  movement  proved  a  failure. 
The  students  acted  too  openly,  they  did  not  take  sufficiently 
precautionary   measures   against   the   police.     Then,   too,   the 


*Further  details  about  Lavrov  are  given  on  pp.  180-186,  in  special  chapter 
devoted  to  this  spiritual  leader  of  the  Russian  revolutionary  movement. 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  49 

peasants  seemed  to  fear  them,  and  in  many  cases  betrayed 
them  to  the  police.  Within  two  or  three  months  six  hundred 
twelve  men  and  one  hundred  fifty-eight  women  were  arrested. 
The  greater  number  were  set  free,  but  two  hundred  fifteen 
persons  were  imprisoned.  They  arrested  daughters  of  noble 
families,  youths  of  the  middle  classes,  noblemen  like  Prince 
Kropotkin,  and  common  workingmen.  But,  though  the  Gov- 
ernment hunted  these  propagandists  like  common  criminals, 
large  circles  of  Russian  society,  which  detested  the  Govern- 
ment's reactionary  policy,  assisted  these  young  idealists  in 
every  possible  way. 

Then  the  Narodniki*,  as  these  young  idealists  were  called, 
realized  that  a  better  organization  was  essential.  As  a  result 
two  new  groups  came  into  existence.  A  group  of  peaceful 
Narodniki  organized  in  Moscow.  In  St.  Petersburg,  the  revolu- 
tionary Narodniki,  together  with  the  remnant  of  the  Circle  of 
Tchaykovsky,  formed  a  society  which  later  was  called  "Land 
and  Freedom." 


THE  program  of  "Land  and  Freedom"  was  founded  on 
the  belief  that  only  an  economic  revolution  "from  the 
bottom"  could  overthrow  the  existing  social  order  and 
bring  about  the  ideal  State.  Thus,  having  decided  to  work 
through  the  people,  they  divided  their  activities  into  the  fol- 
lowing groups  :  First, — the  agitational  activity, — which  was  to 
have  two  forms,  active  and  passive.  Active  agitation  was 
to  express  itself  in  bringing  about  riots  and  uprisings. f 
Passive  agitation  was  to  find  expression  in  strikes,  in  send- 
ing petitions,  refusing  to  pay  taxes,  etc.  Second, — the  organ- 
izing activity, — meant  the  formation  of  a  fighting  detachment, 
which  would  be  in  every  way  prepared  to  start  a  general  up- 
rising at  the  proper  moment.  The  third  point  of  their  pro- 
gram consisted  in  the  spreading  of  revolutionary  ideas  in  so- 
ciety, among  young  people  and  among  the  city  workers.    The 


•The  English  equivalent  for  Narodniki   would  be   "for  the   people." 
fTwo    young    revolutionists,    Deutch    and    Stefanovitch,    actually    went 
to  Chigirin  with  forged  Tzar's  manifestoes,  proclaiming  that  the  Tzar  had 
given  the  land  to  the  peasants.     This  resulted  in  an   uprising  against  the 
landowners. 


50 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


fourth  and  last 
point  of  the  pro- 
gram aimed  to 
establish  regu- 
lar connections 
with  the  organ- 
izations of  dis- 
senters from 
the  Orthodox 
Church. 

"Land  and 
Freedom"  had  a 
Constitution 
which  declared 
the  St.  Peters- 
burg group  the 
center  of  the  so- 
ciety.  The 
members  of  the 
original  group 
had  the  right  to 
recommend  out- 
siders for  raera- 
GEORGE  PLEKHANOV  bership.     There 

was  a  group  to  carry  on  propaganda  among  students  and  an- 
other group  to  agitate  among  the  workers.  There  was  a 
special  group  to  employ  armed  force  against  traitors  and  the 
Government. 

In  December,  1876,  "Land  and  Freedom"  held  its  first  dem- 
onstration in  front  of  the  Kazan  Cathedral,  St.  Petersburg. 
They  had  planned  to  have  thousands  of  workingmen  on  the 
scene,  but  only  two  or  three  hundred  people  gathered.  The 
future  founder  of  the  Russian  Social-Democracy,  George  Plek- 
hanov.  was  the  speaker  for  that  occasion.  However,  the 
demonstrants  were  very  quickly  dispersed  by  a  mob  of  petty 
merchants  and  janitors,  the  police  had  enlisted  for  the  service. 
Twenty   of  the   participants  were   arrested.      Plekhanov,   for- 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  51 

tunately,  was  able  to  escape,  abroad.*  The  arrested  were  tried. 
Some  were  exiled,  and  the  rest  were  sentenced  to  hard  labor 
for  five  or  ten  years. 

Those  members  of  "Land  and  Freedom"  who  had  under- 
taken to  propagate  their  ideas  among  the  peasants  failed  again. 
They  had  learned  something  from  their  earlier  experiences  and 
knew  better  how  to  protect  themselves  against  the  police  and 
treacherous  peasants,  but  the  message  they  brought  was  far 
beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  peasants,  and  they  decided  to 
give  up  preaching  revolution  to  them.  Now  they  had  either  to 
live  among  the  peasants  as  teachers  pure  and  simple,  or  turn 
their  activities  into  other  channels.  Circumstances  decided 
this  for  them  in  due  time. 

The  new  war  with  Turkey,  declared  in  1877.  with  its  blun- 
ders, with  all  the  graft  and  dishonesty  among  the  favored  ones 
who  had  charge  of  provisioning  the  army,  aroused  a  storm  of 
indignation.  Indignation  at  the  constant  embezzlement  of  State 
funds,  the  abuses  and  dishonesty  of  the  commissariat,  was 
especially  keen  among  the  revolutionists  and  the  liberals  in  the 
Zemstvos,  especially  among  the  Zemstvos  in  the  war  zone, 
where,  close  to  the  field  of  operations,  they  themselves  saw 
many  instances  of  graft  and  treachery. 

During  this  general  dissatisfaction,  the  Government 
continued  its  policy  of  persecutions  and  severe  penalties,  so 
that  the  revolutionists  were  finallv  aggravated  to  answer  terror 
for  terror.  The  Chief  of  the  Petrograd  Police,  Trepov.  visited 
a  house  of  detention  where  a  number  of  political  prisoners 
were  being  temporarily  kept.  One  of  the  prisoners.  Bogoliubov, 
did  not  remove  his  hat  to  greet  this  mighty  personage,  and 
Trepov  ordered  him  flogged.  The  political  prisoner-  were 
willing  to  endure  any  hardships  for  their  cause,  hut  corporal 
punishment  was  an  indignity  they  refused  to  bear.  Vera  Zasu- 
lich.  a  voung  girl,  who  did  not  even  know  Bogoliubov  person- 
ally, took  it  upon  herself  to  avenge  him.  She  took  a  revolver, 
found  the  Chief  of  Police,  and  shot  at  him.    She  only  succeeded 


♦Further  details  about  Plekhanov  are  given  on  pp.  216-224,  in  special  chap- 
ter devoted  to  this  spiritual  leader  of  the  Russian  revolutionary  movement. 


52 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


VERA  ZASULICH 


in  wounding  him.  Trepov  was  so  hated 
in  St.  Petersburg  that  his  enemies 
managed  to  have  this  brave  girl's  case 
tried  before  a  common-law  jury.  In 
defense  Vera  Zasulich  said  she  had 
made  every  possible  attempt  to  bring 
these  outrageous  abuses  before  the 
public,  but  had  not  succeeded.  There- 
fore she  had  resorted  to  this  measure 
for  bringing  the  inhuman  treatment  of 
political  prisoners  before  the  nation. 
She  said  she  had  even  asked  the  St.  Pe- 
tersburg correspondent  of  the  London 

"Times"  to  write  up  this  affair  for  his  paper,  but  he  had  re- 
fused, perhaps,  because  he  did  not  believe  such  a  state  of 
affairs  possible.  The  jury  acquitted  her.  As  she  was  leaving 
the  court  house,  the  police  tried  to  rearrest  her,  but  a  crowd  of 
St.  Petersburg  men  interfered  and  saved  her.  She  went 
abroad,  joined  the  Russian  colony  in  Switzerland,  and  later, 
together  with  George  Plekhanov,  P.  Axelrod  and  Leo  Deutch, 
organized  the  "Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor,"  which 
played  such  a  significant  role  in  the  history  of  the  Russian 
Revolutionary  Movement.  This  Group  finally  developed  into 
the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party,  which  until  now 
plays  an  important  role  in  the  Russian  Revolution.  Vera 
Zasulich  is  now  an  old  woman  and  still  plays  her  part  in 
Russian  political  life. 

Notwithstanding  the  general  dissatisfaction  in  society,  the 
Government's  policy  of  repressions  continued.  A  few  instances 
will  probably  best  illustrate  the  methods  of  the  Government 
of  Alexander  II : 

One  young  girl  was  sentenced  to  nine  years'  hard  labor  and 
life  exile  to  Siberia  for  the  crime  of  giving  one  socialist 
pamphlet  to  a  worker.  Another  young  girl,  only  fourteen, 
was  sentenced  to  life  exile  in  Siberia  for  trying  to  incite  a  mob 
to  prevent  the  hanging  of  several  revolutionists.  This  poor 
child  drowned  herself  in  the  Yenesei.    Many  political  prisoners 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  53 

were  first  kept  for  years  in  central  prisons,  prisons  so  filthy, 
nests  of  disease,  that  the  hardest  life  in  Siberia  would  have 
been  far  preferable.  Sometimes  these  prisoners  would  be 
driven  to  resort  to  the  hunger  strike  to  obtain  a  slight  change 
in  conditions  that  were  driving  many  of  them  insane.  Men 
and  women,  as  a  protest  against  conditions,  would  refuse  food 
for  a  week  and  more,  and  become  so  weak  that  they  would 
just  lie  motionless,  with  minds  wandering.  At  the  Kharkov 
prison,  which  was  under  the  control  of  Governor-General 
Prince  Dmitri  Kropotkin,  a  cousin  of  the  revolutionist,  Peter 
Kropotkin,  the  prostrated  prisoners  were  tied  up  with  ropes 
and  fed  artificially. 

The  Narodniki  were  driven  to  measures  of  self-defense. 
The  police  system  was  paying  spies  to  worm  their  way 
into  revolutionary  circles  and  then  betray  the  members. 
Some  retaliatory  measures  against  the  chief  reactionaries 
seemed  necessary.  Serghei  Kravchinsky,  a  young  artillery 
officer,  who  under  the  name  of  Stepniak  became  widely  known 
in  England  and  in  this  country,  assassinated  Chief  of  Gen- 
darmes. Gen.  Mezentzov,  on  the  streets  of  St.  Petersburv.  He 
committed  this  act  in  broad  daylight,  but  was  not  caught. 
The  previously  mentioned  Governor-General  of  Kharkov, 
Prince  Dmitri  Kropotkin,  was  shot  by  the  revolutionists  one 
night,  as  he  was  returning  from  the  theatre. 

The  Government  made  an  appeal  to  the  public  for  its  co- 
operation in  suppressing  the  "rebels."  This  brought  a  response 
from  the  moderate  elements  of  society.  The  Zemstvo  workers 
who  had  themselves  been  hampered  at  every  step,  still  believed 
that  peaceful  methods  of  persuasion  might  bring  about  a 
change  in  the  Government's  policy.  The  Zemstvo  workers 
of  several  Southern  provinces  came  together  and  held  confer- 
ences in  Kiev  and  Kharkov.  They  decided  to  ask  the  revolu- 
tionists to  temporarily  stop  their  terroristic  activities,  while 
peaceful  measures  were  to  be  taken  to  influence  the  Govern- 
ment. The  revolutionists  knew  that  the  Zemstvos  had 
no  chance  of  success,  in  dealing  with  the  Government,  and 
therefore,  they  refused.  However,  the  Zemstvo  members  drew 
up  resolutions  pointing  out  to  the  Government  that  as  long  as 


54  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

it  ignored  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  whole  people,  as  long 
as  it  continued  to  violate  the  fundamental  rights  of  peaceful 
citizens,  the  Zemstvo  societies  were  unable  to  render  any 
assistance.  Many  Zemstvo  assemblies  planned  to  draw  up 
similar  resolutions. 

The  Zemstvo  of  the  Province  of  Tver  drew  up  a  resolution, 
in  which  it  pointed  out  that  the  Emperor,  after  liberating  the 
Bulgarians  from  the  Turkish  yoke,  had  seen  fit  to  grant  them 
self-government.  He  had  guaranteed  them  freedom  of 
the  press,  independence  of  the  judiciary  and  inviolability  of 
their  personal  rights.  The  Zemstvo  of  the  Province  of  Tver 
ventured  to  hope  that  the  Russian  people,  who  had  so  willingly 
borne  the  burdens  of  the  war,  displaying  throughout  their 
love  for  their  Liberator-Tzar,  might  be  granted  these  same 
privileges,  "which  alone  would  enable  them  to  enter,  in  the 
words  of  the  Tzar,  upon  the  path  of  gradual,  peaceful  and 
legitimate  development." 

At  the  assembly  of  the  Chernigov  Zemstvo,  I.  I.  Petrunke- 
vitch,  in  a  rousing  speech,  pointed  out  all  the  abuses  of  the 
autocratic  Government.  He  attacked  Dmitri  Tolstoy's  fan- 
atical, narrow-minded  measures,  he  pointed  to  the  infringe- 
ment of  the  right  of  free  speech,  to  the  repressive  measures 
against  the  press,  and  ended  with  a  resolution  that  as  long  as 
such  conditions  prevailed  society  could  not  come  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Government. 

The  Government  forbade  the  discussion  of  such  subjects  at 
Zemstvo  assemblies  and  threatened  punishment.  In  1879  and 
1880  many  secret  Zemstvo  assemblies  were  held.  The  Gov- 
ernment kept  its  word.  It  began  to  arrest  the  active  members 
of  this  movement.  Petrunkevitch  was  arrested  and  condemned 
to  exile  in  the  Province  of  Kostroma. 

In  1879  there  came  a  split  in  the  "Land  and  Freedom" 
society.  The  extreme  wing  of  the  party  had  held  a  conference 
at  Lipetsk  and  had  decided  to  organize  a  special  "Executive 
Committee,"  for  terroristic  acts  against  the  Govern- 
ment. The  society  came  together  for  a  conference  at  Voronezh 
to  discuss  a  revision  of  its  program.  Then  those  members 
who  had  met  previously  at  Lipetsk  presented  their  resolution. 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  55 

calling  for  the  organization  of  the  "Executive  Committee." 
The  majority  of  the  members  approved  the  Lipetsk  resolution. 
A  small  group  of  Narodniki,  under  the  leadership  of  George 
Plekhanov,  declared  themselves  in  favor  of  the  old  program, 
in  favor  of  social  propaganda,  and  refused  to  take  part  in 
terroristic  activities.  The  small  group  became  known  as  the 
party  of  the  "Black  Repartition,"  whereas  the  large  group,  un- 
der the  name  of  the  "Will  of  the  people,"  made  its  terroristic 
activities  strongly  felt  during  the  next  two  years. 

The  "Will  of  the  people"  decided  that  the  assassination  of 
Alexander  II  would  result  in  a  general  revolution.  A  number 
of  attempts  on  the  life  of  the  Tzar  failed,  but  succeeded  in 
spreading  terror  in  all  Government  circles. 

On  February  4.  1880,  the  "Executive  Committee"  made  an 
attempt  to  blow  up  the  Winter  Palace.  The  explosion  was 
timed  to  occur  just  as  the  Tzar's  family  would  take  the*r 
seats  at  the  dinner  table.  But  the  Prince  of  Bulgaria,  who  was 
to  have  been  present  at  this  dinner,  arrived  half  an  hour  late. 
This  mere  chance  postponed  the  dinner,  and  saved  the  lives 
of  the  entire  Imperial  family. 

However,  this  proved  to  Alexander  II  the  inefficiency  of  his 
whole  police  system  and  the  cleverness  of  the  revolutionists. 
Extreme  fear  for  his  life  made  him  seek  the  council  of  his  ad- 
visers. His  son.  the  heir,  Tzarevitch  Alexander,  suggested 
the  formation  of  an  investigating  commission  with  full  powers. 
Alexander  considered  the  suggestion  and  created  a  dictator- 
ship, vesting  unlimited  powers  in  Loris-Melikoff,  the  Gover- 
nor-General of  Kharkov,  a  man  then  known  as  a  liberal.  The 
people  began  to  hope  that  a  National  Assemblv  would  soon  be 
convoked  as  a  result  of  this  appointment.  However,  whether 
Loris-Melikoff  considered  a  constitutional  form  of  government, 
or  not,  because,  as  some  say,  he  considered  Russia  not  ready 
for  it,  Alexander's  vacillating  policy  did  not  give  Melikoff  a 
chance  to  do  much.  In  six  months  he  was  no  longer  dictator 
but  Minister  of  Interior.  There  had  been  an  apparent  lull  in 
the  terroristic  activities  of  the  revolutionists,  and  Melikoff 
had   tnken   it  for  evidence  that  they  had  decided   to  give   up 


56 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


these  measures  entirely.    He  had  reported  so  to  the  Tzar,  and 

the  Tzar,  regaining-  confidence,  had  abolished  the  dictatorship. 

A  little  over  a  year  after  the  attempt  on  the  Winter  Palace, 


A.  I.  ZHELIABOV 

Executed  April  3,  1881,  for  participation  in  assassination 
of  Alexander  II. 

the  revolutionists  finally  succeeded  in  carrying  out  their  plan  to 
assassinate  Alexander  II.  Melikoff  had  warned  him  that  there 
was  a  chance  of  an  attempt  being  made  on  his  life,  when  he  set 


X.  I.   KIBALTICH 


T.  M.  MIKHAILOV 


X.  I.  GRIXEVITSKY 

Threw  the  bomb  which  killed 

Alexander  II  and  himself. 


S<  'PHI A  PEROVSKAVA 


Participants  in  the  Assassination  of  Alexander  II 

(from  old  photographs) 
Executed  April  3,  1881. 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


out  to  review  the  troops  on  Sunday  morning-,  March  1,  1881. 
But  he  went,  nevertheless.  On  the  way  back  to  the  Winter 
Palace  he  was  killed.  At  a  signal  given  by  Sophia  Perovskaya. 
Risakov  flung  a  bomb  under  the  Emperor's  carriage.  The 
bottom  of  the  carriage  was  damaged  and  several  of  the  Cos- 
sack guards  were  wounded.  The  Tzar  was  not  injured.  The 
coachman  wanted  to  drive  right  on  to  the  Palace,  but  Alexan- 
der insisted  upon  alighting.  He  felt  that  he  was  called  upon 
to  say  something  to  the  wounded  Cossacks.  He  also  ap- 
proached Risakov  and  said  something  to  him.  In  answer  to 
the  inquiries  of  some  of  his  escort,  he  was  just  saying,  "Thank 
God,  I  am  untouched,"  when  another  terrorist,  N.  I.  Grinevit- 
sky,  shouting,  "It's  too  soon  to  thank  God  !"  threw  a  bomb  right 
between  Alexander  and  himself.    Both  lived  only  a  few  hours. 

In  April,  the  participants  in  this  assassination,  Sophia 
Perovskaya,  Risakov,  Zheliabov,  Kibaltich  and  Mikhailov 
were  executed. 

Everyone  of  these  young  terrorists  deserves  a  most  elaborate 
characterization.  All  of  them  were  young  idealists,  sacrificing 
their  lives  for  what  they  understood  as  of  best  service  to  their 
people,  to  their  country,  to  the  principle  of  liberty  and  de- 
mocracy. Unfortunately  we  cannot  devote  space  enough  for 
such  a  characterization  and  must  limit  ourselves  to  a  few 
words  about  Sophia  Perovskaya,  who  was  one  of  the  leading- 
figures  in  the  above-mentioned  historical  act. 

Sophia  Perovskaya  was  the  daughter  of  a  very  aristocratic 
family.  Her  grandfather  had  been  Minister  of  the  Interior 
and  her  father — Military  General  of  St.  Petersburg.  The 
Perovsky  family  were  descendants  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth, 
by  a  morganatic  marriage. 

As  a  child  Sophia  Perovskaya's  education  had  been  very 
much  neglected.  She  was  not  taught  to  read  until  she  was 
eight  years  old,  and  at  fourteen  her  education  was  considered 
completed.  However,  she  somehow  became  interested  in  seri- 
ous books.  When  her  family  moved  to  St.  Petersburg  from 
the  Crimea,  where  she  had  spent  her  early  years,  she  entered 
the  gymnasium.  Here  she  became  acquainted  with  several 
sirls  who  were   interested   in  the   radical   movement.     When 


During  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  II  59 


her  father  objected  to  these  friendships,  she  left  home.  She 
was  only  sixteen  at  that  time. 

It  was  Sophia  Perovskaya  who  was  chiefly  instrumental 
in  founding  the  circle  of  self-education  that  later  became 
known  as  the  Circle  of  Tchaykovsky.  Prince  Peter  Kropotkin, 
who,  as  we  mentioned  before,  was  a  member  of  this 
circle,  speaks  of  the  personality  and  activities  of  Sophia 
Perovskaya  in  his  "Memoirs  of  a  Revolutionist":  "Meetings 
of  our  circle  were  frequent,  and  I  never  missed  them.  We 
used  to  meet  in  a  suburban  part  of  St.  Petersburg,  in  a 
small  house  of  which  Sophia  Perovskaya,  under  the  as- 
sumed name  and  the  fabricated  passport  of  an  artisan's 
wife,  was  the  supposed  tenant.  .  .  Now,  in  the  capacity 
of  an  artisan's  wife,  in  her  cotton  dress  and  men's  boots,  her 
head  covered  with  a  cotton  kerchief,  as  she  carried  on  her 
shoulders  her  two  pails  of  water  from  the  Neva,  no  one  would 
have  recognized  in  her  the  girl  who  a  few  years  before  shone 
in  one  of  the  most  fashionable  drawing-rooms  of  the  Capital. 
"She  was  a  general  favorite,  and  every  one  of  us,  on  enter- 
ing the  house,  had  a  specially  friendly  smile  for  her,  even 
when  she,  making  a  point  of  honor  of  keeping  the  house  rela- 
tively clean,  quarreled  with  us  about  the  dirt  which  we, 
dressed  in  peasant  top-boots  and  sheepskins,  brought  in,  after 
walking  the  muddy  streets  of  the  suburbs.  She  tried  then  to 
give  to  her  girlish,  innocent,  and  very  intelligent  little  face 
the  most  severe  expression  possible  to  it.  In  her  moral  con- 
ceptions she  was  a  'rigorist,'  but  not  in  the  least  of  the  ser- 
mon-preaching type.  When  she  was  dissatisfied  with  some 
one's  conduct  she  would  cast  a  severe  glance  at  him  from  be- 
neath her  brows;  but  in  that  glance  one  saw  her  open-minded, 
generous  nature,  which  understood  all  that  is  human.  On 
one  point  only  she  was  inexorable.  'A  women's  man.'  she  once 
said,  speaking  of  some  one,  and  the  expression  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  she  said  it,  without  interrupting  her  work,  are 
engraved  forever  in  my  memory. 

"Perovskava  was  a  'popularist'  to  the  very  bottom  o\  her 
heart,  and  at  the  same  time  a  revolutionist,  a  tighter  of  the 
truest  steel.     She  had  no  need  to  embellish  the  workers  and 


60  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the  peasants  with  imaginary  virtues,  in  order  to  love  them  and 
to  work  for  them.  She  took  them  as  they  were,  and  said  to 
me  once :  'We  have  begun  a  great  thing.  Two  generations, 
perhaps,  will  succumb  in  the  task,  and  yet  it  must  be  done.'  "* 

To  carry  out  the  ideal  of  the  Tchaykovsky  Circle,  to  go 
among  the  people  to  teach  them,  Sophia  Perovskaya  prepared 
herself  to  become  a  village  teacher.  In  her  wandering  life, 
from  one  village  to  another,  she  sometimes  suffered  great 
privations.  In  November,  1873,  while  engaged  in  propaganda 
work  among  the  workers  in  a  suburb  of  St.  Petersburg,  Sophia 
Perovskaya  was  arrested,  but  was  liberated  on  a  bail  of  5.000 
rubles. 

After  taking  a  course  in  nursing  at  Simferopol,  she  re- 
turned to  her  former  activities.  She  was  arrested  again  and 
this  time  exiled  to  the  Province  of  Olonetsk.  In  1878  she 
escaped  and  returned  to  St.  Petersburg.  There  she  joined  the 
society  "Land  and  Freedom."  In  November,  1879,  she  par- 
ticipated in  an  attempt  to  blow  up  the  Imperial  train, 
on  its  way  to  St.  Petersburg  from  Moscow.  The  attempt 
failed.  On  her  return  to  St.  Petersburg  she  joined  the  terror- 
ist group,  the  "Will  of  the  People." 

As  we  have  said  before,  it  was  Sophia  Perovskaya  who  gave 
the  signal  on  March  1,  1881,  for  throwing  the  bomb  under  the 
carriage  of  Alexander  II.  She  was  not  caught  at  the  time  and 
might  have  escaped  abroad,  but  she  made  no  attempt  to  do 
so,  and  on  March  10th  she  was  arrested.  In  April  of  that 
same  year,  Sophia  Perovskaya,  who  was  only  27  years  old. 
was  hanged  for  her  part  in  the  assassination  of  Alexander  II. 


•Op.  cit.,  pp.  317-318. 


CHAPTER  IV 

H.  A.  Lopatin — A  Typical  Russian  Revolutionist 
of  the  Sixties. 


RUSSIA'S   revolutionary   story,  and  especially  the  story 
of  the  heroic  epoch  of  the  sixties,  seventies  and  eighties, 
is  full  of  most  interesting  human  material  showing  the 
height  of  the  idealism  of  Russia's  youth,  which  then  entered 
into  open  conflict  with  the  regime  of  the  Tzars. 

Out  of  this  material,  impossible  to  present  in  a  short  review 
of  the  Russian  Revolutionary  Movement,  we  will  take  the 
story  of  a  single  life,  which,  probably,  in  itself  reflects  the 
romantic  beauty,  the  lofty  idealism  of  this  epoch. — we  will 
take  the  story  of  Herman  Alexandrovich  T.opatin. 


62  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

H.  A.  Lopatin  was  of  noble  parentage.  He  was  born  in  the 
city  of  Nizhni-Novgorod,  on  January  13,  1845. 

In  1862  Lopatin  entered  the  University  of  St.  Petersburg  as 
a  student  of  biology.  During  his  college  days  he  showed  him- 
self a  natural-born  leader  and  always  represented  his  class- 
mates on  all  embarrassing  occasions.  He  was  so  full  of  life  and 
buoyant  spirits  that  he  won  the  friendship  and  love  of  most  of 
the  students.  In  1866  he  completed  his  course,  after  having 
written  a  thesis  on  the  subject  of  voluntary  conception,  a  sub- 
ject which,  at  that  time,  had  been  but  very  little  investigated. 
The  subject  matter  was  treated  in  such  an  exhaustive  manner 
and  his  arguments  in  defense  of  his  position  were  so  brilliant, 
that  despite  the  fact  that  the  young  writer  disagreed  with  all 
of  his  opponents  on  theoretical  grounds,  he  was  offered  a  post 
in  the  university.  But  the  prospect  of  living  the  life  of  a 
savant,  isolated  from  the  world  of  action,  had  very  little  lure 
for  his  live  temperament,  and  so  he  declined  the  honor. 

The  revolutionist  had  already  awakened  in  Lopatin,  and 
in  1867  he  went  abroad,  intending  to  participate  in  Garibaldi's 
new  attack  on  Rome,  but  th-e  tide  of  events  proved  more 
rapid  than  he  expected.  Before  he  had  a  chance  to  get 
there,  the  battle  of  Menton  had  been  fought,  on  November 
3,  1867,  and  Garibaldi  had  been  taken  captive.  This  had 
put  an  end  to  the  enterprise.  During  this  trip  Lopatin 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Alexander  Hertzen.  After  spend- 
ing a  short  time  abroad,  Lopatin  returned  to  St.  Petersburg 
and  took  part  in  the  "Roublevoye  Obshchestvo."  Moderate  as 
the  aim  of  this  society  was — just  teaching  the  rural  population 
how  to  read  and  write — the  government  saw  in  it  great  dan- 
gers for  itself,  and  began  to  persecute  its  members.  Lopatin 
was  arrested  and.  after  serving  a  short  term  in  prison,  was 
exiled  to  Stavropol,  in  1869,  where  he  was  supposed  to  be  under 
the  surveillance  of  the  police.  There  he  succeeded  in  securing 
employment  with  the  Governor,  whom  he  won  by  his  erudition 
and  character,  although  he  did  not  conceal  his  views  from  him. 

In  the  midst  of  this  peaceful  work  Lopatin  was  again 
arrested.      A    friend   of  his   had   been   searched,   and   a   letter 


H.  A.  Lopatin — Typical  Russian  Revolutionist  63 

from  Lopatin  found,  in  which  he  said  that  he  was  tired  of 
his  life  in  the  Province  "entrusted  to  his  care"  and  that  he 
intended  to  go  abroad  to  see  how  the  good  folks  were  getting 
along  in  America. 

At  the  trial  he  answered  questions  with  such  frankness  and 
straightforwardness  that  the  youth  of  the  country,  for  a  long 
time,  regarded  his  manner  as  the  model  conduct  worthy  of  a 
man  of  firm  convictions.  Soon  after  he  escaped,  choosing 
for  his  escape  a  day  on  which  one  of  the  most  abominable  rep- 
resentatives of  the  worst  class  of  Russia's  officials  was  patrol- 
ling the  prison.  He  had  plenty  of  friends  everywhere  and  he 
had  to  hide  "underground"  for  some  time.  Then  began  his 
life  as  an  "outlaw."  In  the  beginning  of  1870  he  was  in  St. 
Petersburg,  and  in  the  spring  he  left  for  Paris.  In  the  fall  of 
1870  Lopatin  went  back  to  Russia  with  a  definite  plan  which 
he  had  elaborated  in  Switzerland. 

Thrown  in  close  contact  with  the  Russian  emigrants  gath- 
ered in  Switzerland,  he  was  startled  by  their  lack  of  unanimity, 
the  petty  intrigues  and  personal  squabbles  amidst  which  they 
lived.  Lopatin  thought  that  the  Russian  emigrants  in  Switzer- 
land only  needed  an  authoritative  leader,  under  whose  in- 
fluence all  petty  differences  would  disappear  and  the  emigrants 
become  a  really  useful  part  of  the  revolutionary  movement. 
At  that  time  only  one  man  was  considered  by  Russian  in- 
tellectuals as  qualified  to  lead  the  majority  of  the  active 
revolutionary  groups.  This  man  was  the  famous  economist 
and  publicist,  Nicholai  Gavrilovitch  Chernvshevsky.  wh<>  was 
then  in  exile  in  Siberia.  Lopatin  started  for  Russia,  to  free 
him,  to  take  him  abroad  and  place  him  in  the  center  of  the 
Russian  emigrant  colony,  so  that  he  might  organize  and  guide 
the  comrades  gathered  there. 

When  starting  out  on  his  daring  venture.  Lopatin  evidently 
had  no  clear  idea  either  as  to  what  place  in  Siberia  held 
Nicholai  G.  Cherynshevsky  or  the  conditions  under  which  he 
was  living.  Arming  himself  with  minute  maps  and  all 
the  data  regarding  Siberia  that  he  could  possibly  gather, 
he    secured    some    monev    and   left    the    working   out    of   the 


64  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

details  of  his  plan  of  action  to  the  needs  of  the  moment. 
He  remained  for  a  short  time  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  then  left 
for  Irkutsk.  In  Siberia  he  traveled  by  stage  coach.  He 
represented  himself  as  a  member  of  a  geographical  society 
and  explained  his  trip  as  undertaken  for  scientific  purposes. 
He  had  many  an  occasion  for  offering  this  explanation,  as  talk 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  parts  of  Siberia  was  the 
only  source  from  which  he  could  possibly  learn  the  where- 
abouts of  Chernyshevsky,  upon  which  depended  the  success 
of  his  undertaking.  Therefore,  he  constantly  tried  to  join  this 
or  that  group  of  travelers  in  the  hope  that  from  conversation 
with  them  he  would  learn  things  that  might  be  of  use  to 
him.  The  further  East  he  went  the  greater  the  number  of  ac- 
quaintances he  made,  all  of  whom  were  interested  in  his  con- 
versation and  the  news.  Some  of  these  acquaintances  noticed 
that  his  conversation  often  had  the  character  of  questioning. 
The  suspicion  sprang  up  that  he  was  an  official  inspector  sent 
to  Siberia  to  report  conditions  there.  The  rumors  about  him 
traveled  ahead  of  him.  When  he  came  to  Irkutsk  he  found 
himself  the  talk  of  the  city  and  known  as  a  mysterious  trav- 
eler. Just  at  that  time  a  telegram  reached  Irkutsk  from  a 
Geneva  "informer"  to  the  effect  that  Lopatin  was  on  his 
way  to  Siberia  to  free  Chernyshevsky.  Until  now  it  is  not 
known  how  the  spy  got  his  information.  At  any  rate,  the 
result  was  that  Lopatin  was  arrested  in  Irkutsk  just  when 
he  learned  that  Chernyshevsky  was  in  Viluysk,  under  the 
strictest  surveillance. 

In  prison  Lopatin  came  in  close  touch  with  the  various 
inmates  and  his  superiors.  His  fellow  prisoners  soon  came 
to  like  him  for  his  good  humor,  his  legal  advice  and  his  great 
physical  strength.  Through  them  Lopatin  gathered  information 
about  the  locality,  with  the  object  of  escaping.  Two  attempts 
failed.  One  of  these  unsuccessful  attempts  was  based  on  a 
plan  extremely  daring,  and  its  execution  was  remarkable  for 
the  ingenuity  and  resourcefulness  which  he  displayed.  After 
overcoming  tremendous  obstacles  he  was  recognized  by  a 
police  officer  on  the  streets  of  Tomsk.  He  assumed  the  air  of 
an    innocent    and    respectable    citizen    who    was    insulted    by 


H.  A.  Lopatin — Typical  Russian  Revolutionist  65 

the  very  thought  of  being  mistaken  tor  Lopatin,  and  not 
only  did  he  not  hesitate  to  go  to  the  Governor,  but  insisted 
on  it.  He  almost  persuaded  the  Governor  that  it  was  a  mis- 
take on  the  part  of  the  police  officer,  but  the  latter  produced 
Lopatin's  photograph  from  his  pocket.  However,  this  did 
not  disconcert  Lopatin.  He  took  the  photograph,  examined  it 
critically,  and  then  remarked  that  in  his  opinion  the  picture 
bore  greater  resemblance  to  Lincoln  than  to  himself.  The 
Governor  was  again  convinced,  but  the  police  officer  was  obsti- 
nate and  told  the  Governor  in  a  low  whisper  that  he  could  prove 
Lopatin's  identity  by  taking  him  to  a  man  who  knew  him. 
As  a  result,  Lopatin  was  sent  back  to  prison. 

He  soon  made  another  attempt  which  proved  suc- 
cessful. One  day  he  was  summoned  to  the  prison  office  to 
answer  some  questions,  put  to  him  in  writing.  Having  written 
a  lengthy  reply,  he  asked  to  be  escorted  back  to  prison.  In 
front  of  the  office  stood  a  saddled  horse.  In  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  Lopatin  jumped  on  the  horse  and  galloped  away  His 
guards  were  so  startled  by  the  spontaneity  of  the  act  that 
they  made  no  move  to  pursue  him,  but  just  stood  gasping, 
dumbfounded.  He  dashed  out  of  the  city  and  was  hidden  in 
the  suburbs,  and  later  at  the  homes  of  his  friends  in  Irkutsk 
proper,  while  the  authorities  searched  for  him  throughout 
Siberia.  In  a  short  time  he  joined  a  group  of  drivers  who 
were  going  to  European  Russia.  He  behaved,  worked  and 
spoke  like  the  rest  of  them,  and  the  only  thing  that  puzzled 
his  companions  was  his  near-sightedness,  a  defect  rare  among 
the  peasants.  In  1873  he  arrived  in  St.  Petersburg  and  with 
the  aid  of  his  friends  went  to  Zurich. 

Abroad  he  found  the  Russian  emigrants  busily  engaged 
in  revolutionary  work.  Though  he  had  many  friends  among 
the  various  factions,  he  did  not  join  any  of  them,  but  helped 
all  with  his  advice.  From  time  to  time  Lopatin  went  to 
Russia  to  meet  his  co-workers  and  to  get  acquainted  with  con- 
ditions there.  In  1877,  during  his  stay  in  Russia,  he  was  be- 
trayed by  a  man  whom  he  had  trusted.  He  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned  again.  In  1883  he  escaped  from  Vologda,  and 
after  a  brief  stay  in   St.    Petersburg,   where  he   was   greatly 


66  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

shocked  by  the  demoralizing  influence  of  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander III,  he  went  to  Paris.  There  he  took  it  upon  himself 
to  participate  in  the  execution  of  the  revolutionists'  sentence 
upon  Soudeykin,  Chief  of  the  Third  Section  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Police.  On  December  16  of  the  same  year,  he  shot 
Soudeykin.  Immediately  after  he  returned  to  Paris,  and 
worked  assiduously  in  the  interests  of  the  Revolution.  On 
December  17,  1884,  he  was  arrested  in  St.  Petersburg.  After 
spending  two  and  a  half  years  in  prison  awaiting  trial,  he 
was  finally  handed  over  to  the  St.  Petersburg  Court-Martial, 
together  with  twenty  comrades.  The  trial  lasted  from  May  26, 
1887,  until  June  4. 

Following  is  the  final  address  which  Lopatin  delivered 
before  the  judges: 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury!  There  was  a  time  in  Russia 
when  the  court  rooms  were  the  only  place  where  free  and 
frank  words  were  spoken,  where  people  who  went  to  their 
death  spoke  their  thoughts  and  criticised  the  existing  order 
without  fear  or  hindrance.  But  this  time  has  long  passed, 
and  it  will  never  come  again.  Now  there  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  speak  honestly  and  fervently.  We  are  kept  in 
this  place  of  torture  for  years  before  our  trial,  and  in  the 
same  place  are  we  tried  and  have  our  last  say.  We  know 
that  not  one  sympathizing  heart  will  beat  in  response  to 
our  words ;  we  know  that  the  echo  of  our  passionate  speech 
will  die  away  fruitlessly  in  this  empty  hall. 

"Do  not  be  angry  if  at  this  moment  I  tell  you  the  truth : 
Even  you,  judges  of  the  Court-Martial,  I  cannot  recognize 
as  my  legal  judges.  You  are  the  representatives  of  a  partial 
group  and  you  cannot  judge  me  impartially  and  soberly. 
But  I  believe — and  this  is  the  only  faith  that  consoles  me 
in  all  the  darkest  moments  of  my  life — -that  over  all  of  us, 
you  included,  there  is  a  higher  Court  which  in  time  will 
pronounce  its  honest  and  truthful  verdict.  This  court  of 
justice  is  history.  In  view  of  all  this,  I  shall  not  only  not 
defend  myself,  but  will  not  even  explain  to  you  the  true 
meaning  and  significance  of  what  I  have  done.     I  shall  only 


H.  A.  Lopatin — Typical  Russian  Revolutionist  67 

explain  why,  throughout  the  preliminary  cross-examinations 
to  which  I  was  subjected,  I  did  not  admit  that  I  was  a 
member  of  the  party  of  the  'Will  of  the  People'  and  that 
I  was  an  official  agent  of  the  Executive  Committee.  Now 
I  shall  tell  you  openly:  Yes,  I  was  an  agent  of  the  Executive 
Committee.  All  that  I  have  said  before  is  the  absolute  truth — 
yes,  my  spirit  which  was  longing  to  be  free  could  not  get 
reconciled  to  the  fetters  of  any  organization.  It  revolted 
against  being  limited  by  any  definite  program,  definite  under- 
standing of  the  aims,  the  problems  and  ways  of  revolutionary 
activity.  But  some  concessions  were  granted  me,  in  view  of 
my  services  in  the  past.  Now,  then,  why  did  I  persist  in 
refusing  to  admit  that  I  was  a  member  of  the  'Will  of  the 
People'  in  the  face  of  my  enemies?  I  did  not  want  that  my 
freedom  of  speech  should  be  hampered  pending  the  trial  and 
during  the  trial.  I  would  not  have  had  the  right  to  say  many  a 
thing  which  I  could  say  as  a  private  individual.  Besides,  you 
must  remember,  gentlemen,  that  I  who  was  until  now  proud 
of  my  clean  record,  have  now  suffered  such  a  terrible,  such 
a  disgraceful  defeat,  a  defeat  which  has  broken  my  pride.  I 
have  in  mind  those  unfortunate  addresses.  I  have  with  my 
own  hand  destroyed  that  which  I  created  with  my  other 
hand.  Yes,  this  has  been  a  terrible  defeat  and  I  have  suc- 
ceeded in  only  partially  expiating  it.  I  could  not,  I  did  not 
have  the  courage  to  openly  admit  that  I  was  a  member  of 
the  Executive  Committee,  while  I  was  in  such  a  difficult 
position.  But  now,  at  this  moment,  when  my  heart  is  prob- 
ably not  going  to  beat  very  much  longer,  I  admit  the  fact. 
At  the  present  moment  it  is  absolutely  immaterial  to  me 
whether  or  not  you  pronounce  me  an  accomplice  in  the  assass- 
ination of  Soudeykin.  Perhaps  I  am  guilty,  and  perhaps 
not — it  is  up  to  you  to  decide.  At  any  rate,  you  do  not  take 
much  upon  yourself  if  you  find  me  guilty  of  participation  in 
this  assassination.  Morally  I  have  certainly  been  guilty  of 
it.  But  whatever  I  may  have  done,  i  regret  I  have  done  so 
little.  I  shall  not  ask  for  mercy,  and  am  sure  that  I  will  be 
able  to  die  just  as  courageously  as  I  have  lived." 

Together  with   a  number  of  his  friends.    Lopatin   was   sen- 


68  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

tenced  to  death.  But  the  sentence  was  commuted  to  life  at 
hard  labor  and  imprisonment  in  the  fortress  of  Schlusselburg. 
Lopatin  spent  18  years  in  this  fortress  prison.  In  1905  he 
was  freed  by  the  amnesty  granted  political  offenders.  The 
voung  men  and  women  of  St.  Petersburg  arranged  a  grand 
ovation. 

He  is  now  73  years  old. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Reaction  During  the  Reign  of  Alexander  III 

THE  successor  to  Alexander  II,  Alexander  III,  had  defin- 
itely expressed  himself  against  constitutional  plans  at 
a  conference  which  his  father  had  called  a  week  before 
the  Winter  Palace  explosion. 

In  the  end  of  January,  1881,  Loris-Melikoft  had  presented  a 
report  to  Alexander  II  in  which  he  had  declared  his  belief 
about  the  untimeliness  and  impossibility  of  granting  any  form 
of  constitution  to  the  people,  but  had  urged  the  Emperor  to 
satisfy  the  desire  of  certain  representatives  of  the  people  to 
share  in  State  activity.  He  had  suggested  inviting  men  in 
public  life  to  co-operate  in  the  working  out  of  State  reforms. 
Melikoff  had  drawn  up  a  plan,  and  Alexander  II  had  approved 
it  on  the  morning  of  his  assassination. 

A  conference  to  consider  Loris-MelikofF s  plan  had  been  set 
for  March  4.  Alexander  III  at  first  considered  himself  in  duty 
bound  to  regard  his  father's  wishes  in  this  matter.  On  March 
8.  he  held  a  conference  with  his  Ministers.  Opinion  was  pretty 
much  divided,  but  Alexander  III  plainly  showed  his  sympathy 
with  those  Ministers  who  would  have  none  of  those  reforms. 
C.  Pobiedonostzev,  a  former  tutor  of  the  Tzar,  and  enjoying  his 
confidence,  made  an  impassioned  speech  predicting  revolutions 
and  an  end  to  Russia  if  Loris-MelikofFs  project  went  into 
effect.  The  matter  remained  undecided  for  some  time.  Finally 
Pobiedonostzev  convinced  Alexander  III  that  public  opinion 
was  not  demanding  any  such  reforms,  that  the  revolutionary 
movement  drew  its  strength,  not  from  the  country,  but  from 
sources  close  to  the  supreme  power.  It  was  plain  he  meant 
Loris-Melikoff  and  other  liberals.  It  ended  in  Pobiedonostzev 
being-  secretly  commissioned  to  draw  up  a  manifesto  that 
would  show  the  people,  once  for  all.  the  Government's  firm 
stand. 

On  April  29,  1881,  to  the  surprise  of  the  liberals,  the  Mani- 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


festo  appeared.  In  part  it  read  :  "In  the  midst  of  our  great 
grief,  the  voice  of  God  commands  us  to  stand  bravely  at  the 
helm  of  the  Government,  to  trust  in  Divine  Providence,  with 
faith  in  the  power  and  truth  of  the  Absolutism  which,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people,  we  are  called  upon  to  strengthen  and 
safeguard  from  any  invasion." 

These  words  were  universally  interpreted  to  mean  that  no 
constitutional  institutions  would  be  considered,  that  the  princi- 
ple of  Absolutism  was  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  Government's 
policy.  The  liberal  Ministers  resigned.  The  newly  appointed 
Ministers  were  very  conservative,  but  still  not  altogether 
reactionary.  , 

The  Manifesto  of  April  29,  however,  promised  to  con- 
tinue the  reforms  of  the  previous  reign.  In  fact,  the  new 
Minister  of  Interior,  Ignatiev,  sent  out  a  circular  on  the  very 
day  of  his  appointment  that  practically  amounted  to  the  pro- 
gram suggested  by  Loris-Melikoff.  He  intimated  that  the 
Government  desired  to  establish  close  relations  with  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  local  men  would  be  called  upon  to  share  in  affairs 
of  State.  He  warned  the  peasants  against  giving  heed  to 
rumors,  promising  them  that  their  rights  and  liberties  would 
be  protected,  that  measures  would  be  taken  to  alleviate  the 
taxation  burden,  to  statisfy  their  want  of  land,  and  to  improve 
the  structure  of  the  rural  administrations. 

After  a  number  of  semi-ameliorative  reforms  that  showed 
that  Alexander  III  was  balancing  between  a  moderate-liberal 
policy  and  a  definite  reaction,  Pobiedonostzev  succeeded  in 
persuading  the  Tzar  to  absolutely  discard  his  policy  of  making 
concessions  to  public  opinion.  The  reactionary,  Dmitri  Tol- 
stoy, who  had  been  dismissed  during  Loris-MelikofFs  dictator- 
ship, was  now  appointed  Minister  of  Interior.  His  accession 
to  this  important  post  marked  the  beginning  of  the  terrible 
reaction  that  lasted  to  the  end  of  the  reisrn  of  Alexander  III. 


VERA    Flf.XER 


A  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Party  "Will  of  the 

People."     In  1883  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment  in  the   Fortress 

of  Schlvisselburg.     After  spending  22  years  in  prison,  was  released 

during-   the   Revolution   of    1905. 


72  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

In  1883,  through  the  treachery  of  the  revolutionist  Degaiev, 
the  Government  was  enabled  to  capture  those  members  of  the 
"Will  of  the  People"  who  had  thus  far  remained  at  liberty.* 

Thereafter  Dmitri  Tolstoy  was  given  full  power,  which  he 
used  first  of  all  in  influencing  the  Minister  of  Education, 
Delianov,  to  restore  all  the  reactionary  tendencies  in  this  De- 
partment, which  Tolstoy  had  himself  managed  for  sixteen 
years,  under  Alexander  II.  The  universities  were  deprived 
of  any  form  of  autonomy.  No  student  organizations  were 
to  be  permitted.  If  the  students  showed  any  rebellious  spirit 
they  were  to  be  reduced  to  the  rank  of  soldiers ;  in  all  events 
they  were  to  be  treated  with  extreme  severity.  The  programs 
of  the  faculties  of  law  and  philology  were  altered  to  suit  the 
will  of  the  new  Minister.  A  circular,  sent  out  by  the  Minister 
of  Education,  practically  ordered  that  all  children  of  the  lower 
classes  be  eliminated  from  the  secondary  schools,  the  gymnasia. 

The  reactionary  landowners,  those  who  had  fought  every 
vestige  of  peasant-reform,  now  had  every  assurance  of  full 
support  in  the  safeguarding  of  their  own  class  interests.  So 
much  so,  that  the  peasants  began  to  fear  that  the  old  days  of 
serfdom  were  to  be  resurrected. 

In  fact,  all  the  reforms  of  previous  years  were  now  mutilated. 
The  Zemstvos  were  practically  put  under  the  sole  control  of 
the  nobility,  so  greatly  was  the  number  of  peasant  delegates 
reduced.  Revisions  were  made  in  the  system  of  elections  to 
the   Zemstvos,   revisions,   the   purpose   of  which   was   the   re- 

*Besides  being  known  as  a  traitor,  Degaiev  is  known  in  the  history  of 
the  Russian  revolutionary  movement  as  the  murderer  of  Soudeykin,  the 
Chief  of  the  Third  Section  of  the  Department  of  Police.  Soudeykin  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  visiting  revolutionaries  in  prison  to  try  to  persuade  them 
to  become  spies,  in  the  service  of  the  Government,  and  betray  their  com- 
rades. He  succeeded  with  Degaiev,  who  had  been  imprisoned  for  taking 
part  in  the  operation  of  a  secret  printing  plant.  Degaiev  agreed  to  enter 
Soudeykin's  service  and  was  released  from  prison.  Pretending-  he  had  es- 
caped, he  was  immediately  welcomed  back  to  the  ranks  of  the  "Will  of  the 
People."  He  gained  the  confidence  of  the  leaders  and  not  only  betrayed 
numbers  of  them,  but  even  implicated  sympathizers.  It  is  said  that  he 
even  organized  circles  of  youths  and  then  betrayed  them.  Having  formerly 
been  an  officer,  he  was  able  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  officers  at  Kron- 
stadt  and  betrav  many  of  them.  Vera  Figner.  L.  A.  Volkenstein  and  other 
leading  members  of  the  "Will  of  the  People"  were  arrested  through  the 
betrayal  of  Degaiev.  The  numerous  arrests  led  the  revolutionists  to  sus- 
nect  a  traitor  in  their  ranks.  Finally  suspicion  fell  upon  Degaiev.  Degaiev 
fled  to  Geneva.  There  he  was  recognized  by  one  of  the  revolutionists. 
Afraid  that  he  would  be  taken  to  account,  he  offered  to  return  to  Russia 
p.nd  assassinate  Soudeykin.  This  deed  wa=  finally  accomplished  in  his 
house  in   St.   Petersburg,   on  December  16.   1883. 


Reaction  During  the  Reign  of  Alexander  III 


73 


viving  of  the  old  class 
privileges.  In  1889  a 
new  law  practically 
destroyed  the  judic- 
iary reforms  of  pre- 
vious years. 

As  Procurator  of 
the  Holy  Synod,  Alex- 
ander's evil  genius, 
Pobiedonostzev,  insti- 
tuted a  form  of  relig- 
ious and  race  perse- 
cution that  closely 
resembled  the  Span- 
ish Inquisition.  The 
various  non-orthodox 
sects  were  forbidden 
to  build  their  temples 
and  even  to  perform 
worship.  Often  chil- 
dren were  torn  away 
from  their  parents  so 
that   the    Government  L.  A.  VOLKENSTEIN 

might  assure  their  growing  up  in  the  orthodox  faith.  Pobiedo- 
nostzev poured  forth  his  wrath  also  against  the  Poles  and  the 
Jews,  particularly  the  Jews.  The  Poles  were  deprived  of  the 
right  to  hold  Government  positions  in  the  Western  provinces 
and  in  Poland. 

In  1882,  the  Jews,  who  theretofore  had  had  the  right  to  live 
only  within  the  limits  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  were  forbidden 
to  live  outside  of  the  cities  and  towns,  even  within  the  Pale. 
In  1887  a  law  was  passed  whereby  the  number  of  Jewish  chil- 
dren entering  the  schools  could  be  only  a  definite  percentage 
of  all  other  pupils  enrolled.  Two  years  later  another  law  pre- 
vented Jews  from  becoming  Sworn  Attorneys  :  Assistant  At- 
torney was  as  high  as  any  Jewish  student  would  now  be  per- 
mitted to  advance.  In  1891  seventeen  thousand  Jewish  artisans. 


74  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

who  had  previously  had  the  right  to  live  outside  of  the  Pale 
of  Settlement,  were  driven  out  of  Moscow. 

Needless  to  say  that  the  press  was  also  made  to  feel  the 
hand  of  oppression.  The  Minister  of  Interior,  the  Minister  of 
Justice,  the  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod  and  the  Minister 
of  Education,  jointly,  were  constituted  a  tribunal  with  the 
power  to  suppress  any  organ  that  showed  symptoms  of  anti- 
governmental  tendencies,  and  to  forbid  the  editor  thereof  from 
ever  editing  again.  It  was  a  very  common  occurrence  for  a 
publication  to  be  forbidden  retail  sale.  In  fact,  extremely  few 
liberal  organs  were  able  to  last  any  length  of  time. 

To  the  end  of  his  reign  Alexander  III,  in  his  internal  policy, 
remained,  under  the  thumb  of  Pobiedonostzev. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Revolutionary  and  Liberal  Movement  During  the  Early 

Years  of  the  Reign  of  Nicholas  II 

NICHOLAS  II,  the  son  of  Alexander  III,  the  last  of  the 
Romanoffs,  overthrown  by  the  Revolution  of  March, 
1917,  had  been  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  vitiated  by 
the  soullessness  and  obscurantism  of  Pobiedonostzev.  Yet, 
the  very  fact  of  a  new  Tzar  ascending  the  throne,  revived  hope 
in  the  liberal  circles  of  society. 

Various  Zemstvos  appointed  deputations  to  congratulate 
Nicholas  II.  An  address  presented  by  a  representative  of  the 
Tver  Zemstvo,  in  its  most  radical  part,  said :  "We  permit  our- 
selves to  hope  that  the  voice  of  the  people  and  the  expression 
of  its  desires  will  be  heard  on  the  heights  of  the  Throne  and 
will  be  listened  to.  We  are  absolutely  convinced  that  the  wel- 
fare of  Russia  will  make  strides  under  your  rule,  and  that  from 
now  on  the  law  will  be  respected  and  obeyed,  not  only  by  the 
nation  alone,  but  also  by  the  representatives  of  the  power 
that  govern  it.  The  law  .  .  .  should  be  above  the  changing 
views  of  the  individual  representatives  of  this  sublime  power." 

The  addresses  presented  by  the  representatives  of  other  Zem- 
stvos were  far  less  outspoken  than  this,  and  this  address,  as 
can  be  seen,  was  far  from  revolutionary.  But  the  Tzar,  in  a 
short  speech,  rebuked  the  Tver  Zemstvo,  and  shattered  the 
people's  hopes  of  any  constitutional  reform.  He  called  the 
hopes,  expressed  by  the  Zemstvos,  for  co-operation  in  State 
affairs  "senseless  dreams,"  and  declared  that  the  principle  of 
Absolutism  would  be  firmly  maintained  by  him,  and  would  not 
be  deviated  from  any  more  than  in  the  reign  of  his  father. 

The  people  swayed  between  disappointment  and  indignation. 
It  was  very  evident  that  Pobiedonostzev  was  to  be  permitted 
to  continue  his  reign  of  darkness.  The  revolutionists,  who 
had  been  completely  disheartened,  saw  now  the  opportunity 
to  revive  their  movement,  through  the  union  of  all  the  dis- 
satisfied  forces.      In    an    open   letter   dated   "St.    Petersburg. 


76  The  Birlh  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

January  19,  1885,"  but  really  printed  abroad,  they  answered 
the  autocratic  speech  of  Nicholas  II,  and  informed  him  that 
from  now  on  it  was  their  duty  to  fight  the  "hateful  order  of 
things"  to  the  bitter  end,  by  every  and  any  means,  for  Nich- 
olas himself  had  started  the  struggle.  Their  words  "it  will 
not  be  long  before  you  find  yourself  entangled  by  it"  have 
indeed  proven  prophetic. 

Pobiedonostzev,  given  free  reign,  filled  the  Ministries  with 
men  after  his  own  heart,  heaped  up  the  torments  and  persecu- 
tions for  the  religious  sects,  hindered  and  restricted  the  activi- 
ties ot  the  Zemstvos  in  their  work  of  alleviating  the  terrible 
conditions  of  the  peasantry,  and  roused  to  bitter,  revolutionary 
spirit  the  people  of  Finland,  the  Armenians  and  the  Georgians, 
people  who  had  heretofore  lived  peacefully  and  had  taken 
almost  no  part  in  any  oppositional  movement. 

The  Zemstvos  were  seeking  to  establish  schools  and  hos- 
pitals, trying  to  inaugurate  more  scientific  methods  in  the  care 
of  cattle,  forcing  factories  to  give  the  workers  sanitary  condi- 
tions for  their  work,  altogether  measures  too  enlightened  and 
bound  to  interfere  with  the  obscurantist  policies  of  Pobie- 
donostzev and  his  servile  followers.  The  Zemstvos  were  for- 
bidden to  discuss  any  political  questions  in  their  assemblies, 
but  the  all  but  silenced  press,  the  infringement  of  all  civil 
rights,  the  absolute  disregard  of  the  desiderata  of  the  people, 
forced  them  to  give  vent  to  their  feelings  in  the  privacy  of 
these  assemblies.  Von  Plehve,  the  new  Minister  of  Interior, 
exiled  the  outspoken  members  and  closed  up  the  assemblies. 

Such  liberals  as  Prince  D.  Shakhovskoy,  Princes  Peter  and 
Paul  Dolgorukov,  Professor  Paul  Milyukov,  F.  Kokoshkin,  V. 
Nabokov  and  a  number  of  well-known  Zemstvo  workers, — 
among  them  I.  Petrunkevitch  and  F.  Rodichev. — were  driven 
to  found  a  special  party  to  agitate  for  constitutional  reform. 
This  liberal  party,  called  the  "Union  of  Liberation."  issued,  in 
Stuttgart,  a  special  organ,  "Liberation,"  under  the  editorship 
of  Peter  Struve,  a  prominent  economist  and  publicist. 

Those  were  the  years  when  Leo  Tolstoy's  voice  thundered 
forth  again  and  again,  often  calling  upon  the  civilized  world 
in   behalf  of  the  persecuted   races  and   creeds.     In   1897  the 


During  the  Early  Years  of  the  Reign  of  Nicholas  II  77 

Holy  Synod  declared  the  followers  of  Leo  Tolstoy  a  sect 
"especially  dangerous  for  the  Orthodox  Church  and  the  State/' 
Then  in  1900,  the  Holy  Synod,  with  all  the  ceremonial  of  olden 
days,  excommunicated  Leo  Tolstoy  from  the  Orthodox  Church. 

It  was  Von  Plehve's  aspiration  "to  drown  the  Revolution  in 
Jewish  blood"  and  Pobiedonostzev's  "to  force  one-third  of 
the  Jews  to  conversion,  another  third  to  emigrate,"  to  escape 
his  inquisition,  and  as  for  the  rest, — he  believed  they  would 
surely  die  of  hunger.  In  an  endeavor  to  keep  the  Jewish 
children  from  education,  regulations  were  established,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  secondary  schools,  the  gymnasia,  within  the 
Pale  of  Settlement  could  not  accept  more  than  ten  per  cent,  of 
Jewish  pupils,  whereas  in  those  without  the  Pale,  the  Jewish 
pupils  were  restricted  to  five  per  cent,  of  the  number  in  the 
school.  The  universities  were  permitted  to  accept  only  three 
per  cent.  The  Pale  of  Settlement  was  continually  reduced,  so 
that  congestion,  and  the  poverty  resulting  from  the  struggle 
for  existence  under  innumerable  restrictions,  might  ultimately 
decimate  these  people.  Those  were  the  days  of  "pogroms,"  and 
the  horrors  of  the  KishinefT  massacre  made  all  civilized  peo- 
ples, the  world  over,  shudder.  The  Poles  and  all  the  other  non- 
Orthodox  peoples  were  more  or  less  made  to  feel  the  holy 
wrath  of  the  Grand  Inquisitor.  The  Holy  Synod  did  his  bid- 
ding entirely. 

The  interference  with  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  Georgians 
and  the  Armenians,  in  the  Caucasus  region,  the  confiscation 
of  Armenian  Church-lands  and  Church-funds,  drove  vast  num- 
bers of  them  into  the  revolutionary  movement.  Yon  Plehve 
and  Pobiedonostzev  continued  to  sponsor  every  inquisitorial 
measure. 

In  the  meantime,  capitalistic  production,  which  had  bejjun 
to  develop  in  Russia  after  the  liberation  of  the  serfs,  had  at- 
tracted and  brought  to  the  cities  the  poorest  peasants,  those 
who  could  not  make  their  living  by  tilling  the  small  bit  of 
land  they  possessed.  The  natural  process  of  capitalistic  de- 
velopment brought  into  existence  in  Russia,  as  in  other 
countries,  the  most  revolutionary  class  of  modern  society,  the 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


proletariat.  This  class  was  destined  to  lead  the  Russian  Revo- 
lution, supported  by  great  masses  of  the  poor  peasantry  and  by 
the  various  nationalities,  oppressed  by  the  Tzar's  regime. 

Observing  the  tendencies  of  the  new  industrial  development, 
the  growth  of  the  proletariat  in  the  cities,  and  knowing  the 
revolutionary  role  already  played  by  the  proletariat  in  the 
west-European  countries,  George  Plekhanov  and  his  followers 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  way  to  prepare  for  revo- 
lution in  Russia  was  to  carry  on  propaganda  among  the  work- 
ingmen  in  the  cities. 

As  we  have  said  before,  Plekhanov,  together  with  P.  Axel- 
rod,  Vera  Zasulich  and  Leo  Deutch.  organized,  abroad,  the 
famous,  in  the  history  of  the  Russian  Revolutionary  Movement, 
"Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor."  This  group  spread 
the  theory  of  Marxian  scientific  Socialism,  in  Russia.  In 
1898  the  "Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor"  developed 
into  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Workingmen's  Party. 

Count  Serghei  Witte,  as  Minister  of  Finance,  had  the  year 
previously  exerted  himself  to  bring  back  the  working  people 
into  the  bosom  of  the  paternal  Government,  by  introducing  a 
law  "limiting"  the  working  day  to  eleven  and  a  half  hours. 
The  Government  went  even  further  in  its  attempt  to  keep  the 
workers  away  from  the  influence  of  the  socialist  propagandists. 
It  organized  a  chain  of  labor  societies,  under  the  direct  pro- 
tection of  the  police.  Its  aim.  of  course.  wras  the  protection  of 
the  interests  of  the  workers.  To  show  its  "sincerity"  it  even 
organized  strikes.  The  employers  were  not  a. bit  pleased  by 
these  activities  of  the  police.  Finally  ose  strike,  in  Odessa, 
spread  so  rapidly  that  it  got  entirely  beyond  the  control  of  the 
agents  of  the  police,  who  had  organized  it.  When  it  reached  that 
point  the  police  could  not  afford  to  play  its  part  any  longer, 
and  much  blood  was  shed.  Then  the  workers  realized  the 
meaning  of  labor  societies,  under  police  control. 

.  "While  the  workingmen  in  the  cities  became  more  and  more 
interested  in  the  Social-Democratic  Workingmen's  Party,  the 
peasants,  in  as  far  as  they  began  to  be  influenced  by  revolution- 
ary  propaganda,   came   under   the   influence   of   the   Party   of 


N.   C.   MIKHAILOVSKY 

Famous  critic,  publicist  and  sociologist.  An  opponent  of  the  theories 
which  underestimate  the  importance  of  the  individual  in  the  process 
of  natural  and  social  development, — such  as  the  theories  of  Spencer, 
Darwin  and  Marx.  For  decades  Mikhailovsky  was  considered  the 
spiritual  leader  of  the  Xarodniki  wing  of  the  Russian  Revolutionary 
Movement.     Died  in  1904. 


80  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Socialists-Revolutionists,  the  successor  in  its  program  and  tac- 
tics to  the  "Will  of  the  People." 

The  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists  had  also  many  fol- 
lowers among  the  "intelligentsia."  This  Party  was  destined 
to  play  an  important  role  in  paving  the  way  for  the  Revolutions 
of  1905  and  1917,  and  a  still  more  important  role  in  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  after  the  Revolution  of  1917.  Kerensky 
ind  such  members  of  the  Provisional  Government  as  Chernov, 
Avksentieff  and  Savinkov  belonged  to  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists. 

This  Party,  in  its  tactics,  advocated  revolutionary  terror  as 
an  answer  to  the  terror  practised  by  the  Tzar's  Government. 
A  special  Fighting  Organization  was  established  by  the  Party, 
to  execute  the  death  sentences  passed  by  its  Central  Commit- 
tee. This  Fighting  Organization  assassinated  the  Ministers 
of  Interior,  Sypiagin  and  Von  Plehve;  the  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion, Bogolepov ;  the  Governor  of  Ufa,  Bogdanovich,  and  the 
Governor-General  of  Moscow,  Grand  Duke  Serghei  Alexandro- 
vich.  The  names  of  the  young  heroes,  the  terrorists  who 
sacrificed  their  lives  fighting  the  enemies  of  their  people. — 
the  names  Balmashev,  Gershuni,  Karpovich,  Sazonov, 
Kaliaev  and  others, — will  never  die  in  the  grateful  memory 
of  the  Russian  democracy.  The  activities  of  the  Fighting 
Organization  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists  and  the 
personalities  of  its  heroic  members  deserve  a  special  mention- 
ing even  in  a  short  history  of  the  Russian  Revolutionary 
Movement. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Activities  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party 
of  Socialists-Revolutionists 

ONE  of  the  first  acts  committed  by  the  Fighting  Or- 
ganization occurred  in  1902,  when  a  young  student, 
Stepan  Balmashev,  dressed  as  an  officer  to  escape 
detection,  shot  the  reactionary  Minister  of  Interior,  Sypiagin, 
as  the  latter  was  entering  the  building  of  the  Ministry.  Sypia- 
gin had  been  responsible  for  sixty  thousand  political  arrests. 
He  was  responsible  for  the  untold  sufferings  of  many,  many 
exiles.  A  few  years  before,  in  1897,  a  young  student,  Karpo- 
vich,  shot  the  reactionary  Minister  of  Education,  Bogolepov. 
In  May,  1903,  two  members  of  the  Fighting  Organization, 
under  the  direction  of  Gershuni,  shot  Bogdanovich,  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Ufa.  And,  in  July.  1904,  Sazonov  carried  out  the 
death  penalty  against  the  Minister  of  Interior.  Von  Plehve. 
that  right  hand  of  Pobiedonostzev. 

Stepan  Balmashev  was  born  on  the  3rd  of  April,  1881,  in  the 
remote  city,  Pinega,  in  the  far-off  Province  of  Archangel, 
where  his  father  was  in  exile.  There  little  Stepan  spent  four 
years  of  his  childhod,  after  which  his  parents  returned  to 
Saratov,  on  the  Volga. 

The  boy  was  brought  up  under  the  guidance  of  his  father, 
who  was  a  liberal  by  conviction  and  who  tried  to  educate 
his  son  so  as  to  bring  out  what  was  best,  noblest  and  most 
humane  in  him.  In  1891  the  boy  entered  the  gymnasium. 
where  he  felt  very  lonesome  at  first.  A  little  later  he  found 
himself  the  center  of  a  group  of  the  most  capable  and  ener- 
getic boys.  The  editing  of  the  school  magazines.  '"Echo" 
and  "First  Experience,"  the  reading  of  the  Russian  radical 
writers,  Dobroliubov,  Chernyshevsky,  Lavrov.  and  the  study 
of  political  economy  and  sociology  absorbed  all  his  time  at  this 
period  of  his  life. 

In  1899  Balmashev  entered  the  University  of  Kazan  and 
a  vear  later  he  transferred  to  the  Universitv  of  Kiev.     There 


82  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

he  organized  a  fraternity  called  "Povolzhskoye  Zemiia- 
chestvo,"  which  later  became  an  "underground  university"  for 
the  preparation  of  active  workers  for  the  Russian  political 
parties.  He  also  became  active  in  many  other  radical  student 
organizations. 

Soon  a  storm  of  wrath,  from  on  high,  burst  on  the  students 
of  Kiev,  and  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  Govern- 
ment, one  hundred  eighty-three  students  were  sentenced  to 
become  privates  in  the  army.  Among  those  sentenced  to  serve 
as  soldiers  was  Balmashev,  who  had  led  the  other  students. 

In  September,  1901,  Balmashev  again  entered  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kiev,  and  soon  organized  the  "Kiev  Socialist  Union," 
composed  of  his  nearest  friends  and  classmates.  This  Union 
had  a  definite  program.  After  negotiations  started  in  the 
fall  of  1901,  the  Union  formally  joined  the  Kiev  Committee  of 
the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists.  This  group  soon  be- 
came the  central  terrorist  organ — the  Fighting  Organization 
of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists. 

In  September,  this  Organization  sentenced  to  death  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  Sypiagin,  and  the  Procurator  of  the 
Holy  Synod,  Pobiedonostzev, — two  of  the  foremost  reactionary 
figures  in  the  Tzar's  Government,  at  that  time. 

In  the  middle  of  February.  1902,  Balmashev  secretly  left 
Saratov  and  on  March  24,  he  arrived  in  St.  Petersburg.  As  we 
have  said  before,  he  shot  Sypiagin  as  the  latter  was  entering 
the  building  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  Balmashev  was 
dressed  in  an  officer's  uniform,  and  this  had  made  it  possible 
for  him  to  enter  the  building,  unsuspected. 

He  died  bravely.  Time  and  again  Dournovo,  the  Chief  of 
the  Department  of  Police,  begged  him  to  petition  the  Tzar 
to  have  his  sentence  commuted,  but  Balmashev  refused.*  "I 
see."  he  said,  "that  you  find  it  more  difficult  to  hang  me  than 
I  find  it  to  die.     I  want  no  favors  from  you.     I  would  only 


*The  Government  officials  often  asked  prominent  terrorists,  sentenced 
to  execution,  to  petition  the  Tzar  for  clemency,  guaranteeing  that  such  a 
petition  would  meet  with  success.  They  wanted  thereby  to  discredit  the 
revolutionary  heroes  by  proving-  them  weak,  afraid  of  death.  The  revolu- 
tionists, in  almost  all  cases,  stood  the  test  bravely,  stoically  facing  death 
for  liberty  and  the  rights  of  the  people. 


STEPAN  BALMASHEV 

Member    of   the    Fighting    Organization    of   the    Party    of    Socialists- 
Revolutionists.    Shot  the  reactionary  Minister  of  Interior, 
Sypiagin.     Executed  on   May   5.   1902. 


PETER  KARPOVICH 
Member  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists.  In  1897  shot  the  reactionary  Minister  of  Education, 
Bogolepov.  Was  confined  in  the  Schlusselburg  Fortress.  In  1906 
was  transferred  to  hard-labor  prison  in  Siberia.  Escaped  from  Siberia 
in  March,  1907,  and  lived  abroad  up  to  the  time  of  the  March  Revolu- 
tion, in  1917.  Immediately  after  the  Revolution,  attempting  to  return 
to  Russia,  Karpovich  lost  his  life  when  a  German  submarine  attacked 
the  British  vessel  on  which  he  was  returning. 


Activities  of  the  Fighting  Organization  85 

ask  that  you  give  me  a  strong  rope.     You  don't  even  know 
how  to  hang  one  properly." 

On  May  5th,  1902.  at  3  A.  M.,  Balmashev  was  executed. 


Student  disturbances  had  been  keeping  the  police  busy  all 
through  the  reign  of  Nicholas  II,  for  the  universities  were  hot- 
beds of  socialism  and  revolution.  The  students  were  expelled 
from  the  universities,  they  were  imprisoned,  they  were  exiled 
to  Siberia,  but  the  spirit  lived  on  and  constantly  gathered 
force.  In  1899,  as  a  protest  against  the  knouting  of  a  number 
of  university  students  by  the  St.  Petersburg  police,  thirteen 
thousand  students,  all  over  the  country,  went  out  on  strike.  The 
Tzar  ordered  everyone  of  these  students  forcibly  enlisted  in 
the  army.  Numbers  of  liberal  professors  in  the  Universities 
of  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg  and  other  cities  were  dismissed. 
After  the  disturbance  in  Kiev,  in  1900,  in  which  about  one 
thousand  students  participated,  five  hundred  were  arrested. 
Again,  almost  two  hundred  were  forcibly  enlisted,  and  the 
rest  were  expelled  from  the  university.  Disturbances  followed 
in  other  cities,  but  every  time  the  Cossacks  were  sent  out 
against  the  students,  with  orders  to  flog  them  without  mercy. 
A  demonstration  before  the  Kazan  Cathedral  in  St.  Petersburg 
resulted  in  six  men  and  one  woman  student  killed,  and  num- 
bers wounded  by  the  police  and  the  Cossacks.  Then  Peter 
Karpovich.  a  young  student,  a  member  of  the  Fighting 
Organization  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  shot 
the  Minister  of  Education,  Bogolepov,  because  Bogolepov  was 
the  man  responsible  for  the  extremely  brutal  manner 
in  which  the  protesting  students  had  been  handled.  But  the 
public  was  so  furious  that  even  the  assassination  did  not 
appease  its  righteous  anger.  The  mothers,  various  writers, 
professors  and  other  intelligent  people  signed  protests  which 
were  showered  upon  the  Government.  Workingmen  had  par- 
ticipated in  the  demonstration  before  the  Kazan  Cathedral, 
and  now  they  marched  in  the  streets  of  numerous  towns, 
shouting  "Down  with  Absolutism  !"   A  storm  was  brewing. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  February.  1904,  a  group  of  members  of 


86  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the  Fighting  Organization,  led  by  a  young  terrorist,  Grigory 
Gershuni,  was  brought  before  the  Court-Martial  of  St.  Peters- 
burg. Gershuni  was  accused  of  being  one  of  the  most  active 
members  of  the  Fighting  Organization,  of  having  organized 
and  directed  the  assassinations  of  Minister  of  Interior,  Sypia- 
gin,  of  the  Governor  of  Ufa,  Bogdanovich,  and  of  having 
directed  the  plot  against  the  Governor  of  Kharkoff,  Prince 
Obolensky.  The  trial  was  held  behind  closed  doors  and  only 
some  of  the  favored  gendarmes  and  police  officials  could  see 
and  hear  Gershuni.  But  despite  the  closed  doors,  Gershuni's 
name  became  very  popular  in  Russia.  He  made  even  the 
hardened  judges  and  his  prison  guards  bow  before  his  person- 
ality. They  looked  at  him  in  astonishment  and  with  deep 
respect.  One  of  the  judges  said  aloud  after  the  trial:  "Yes, 
that  is  a  real  man." 

Gershuni  was  born  in  the  town  of  Shavli,  of  Jewish  parents. 
Before  he  became  a  revolutionist,  Gershuni  had  long  been 
engaged  in  legal  activities.  He  considered  the  main  aim  of 
his  life — to  serve  the  people.  He  had  faith  in  the  people, 
he  loved  the  people  and  he  wanted  to  consecrate  all  his 
strength  to  the  people.  He  used  to  say :  "I  feel  that  the 
Russian  people  will  accomplish  great  deeds  of  truth  and 
justice." 

Gershuni  started  to  educate  the  people.  He  arranged 
popular  readings  and  worked  in  the  schools — always  try- 
ing not  to  trespass  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  bureaucratic 
laws.  But  the  deeper  he  entered  into  the  work,  the  more  he 
came  in  contact  with  the  people  and  learned  their  wants,  the 
clearer  he  saw  the  real  picture  of  Russian  life.  He  saw  that 
the  people  were  starving,  dying  of  disease,  living  in  conges- 
tion, squalor  and  poverty,  despite  the  fact  that  they  worked 
from  early  morning  till  late  at  night.  And,  in  the  face  of 
such  conditions,  the  Government  not  only  did  not  do  any- 
thing to  help  the  people,  but  it  barred  the  way  to  those  who 
sought  to  help  the  masses.  It  did  not  allow  anything  beyond 
the  simplest  rudiments  of  education  in  the  schools.  One 
was    not    permitted    to    tell    the    people    about    the    causes 


GRIGORY  GERSHUNI 

One  of  the  leaders  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party  of 
Socialists-Revolutionists.  Organized  and  directed  the^assassinations 
of  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Sypiagin,  of  the  Governor  of  Ufa,  Bog- 
danovich,  and  directed  the  plot  against  the  Governor  of  Kharkov, 
Prince  Obolensky.  Was  sentenced  to  death  by  the  Petrograd  Court- 
Martial  in  February,  1904.  The  death  sentence  was  commuted  to 
life  at  hard  labor  in  Siberia.  Escaped  from  Siberia  in  1906.  Died  in 
France  in  1907. 


88  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  their  misery,  for  this  would  be  against  the  interests  of 
the  bureaucracy.  It  knew  that  when  the  people  realized 
the  true  state  of  affairs,  they  would  want  to  free  themselves 
from  oppression  and  lawlessness. 

Gershuni  realized  that  there  was  really  no  law  in  Russia, 
that  the  fate  of  150  million  people  was  in  the  hands  of  a  small 
but  well  organized  clique  who  thought  of  their  own  ends  only, 
and  transacted  all  their  affairs  in  the  secrecy  of  their  offices. 
There  was  only  one  thing  for  him  to  do,  and  this  he  did.  He 
decided  to  work  for  the  people  secretly.  He  abandoned  his 
former  profession  of  pharmacist,  left  his  native  city,  changed 
his  name  and  entered  the  party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists. 
From  this  moment  his  revolutionary  activities  began. 

Becoming  convinced  that  nothing  could  be  done  by  peace- 
ful methods  while  the  Government  was  making  free  use  of 
its  policy  of  terror,  Gershuni  gradually  changed  from  a  peace- 
ful worker  into  a  terrorist.  All  this  he  related  in  his  speech, 
delivered  before  the  Court,  and  added :  "In  my  activities  I 
was  guided  only  by  my  conscience,  by  my  desire  to  serve  the 
interests  of  the  working  people,  and  my  duty  towards  them. 
I  believe  I  have  done  well  and  do  not  reproach  myself,  for  I 
trust  the  workers  will  understand  me  and  will  not  reproach 
me."  But  the  judges,  he  said,  would  have  to  answer  to  the 
people  for  the  fact  that  persons  who  wish  to  sacrifice  their 
lives  for  the  people,  are  now  rotting  in  the  jails,  in  Siberian 
exile,  or  losing  their  lives  on  the  scaffold.  He  concluded  his 
speech  with  the  following:  "I  know  that  the  road  from  here 
leads  straight  to  the  scaffold,  but  I  ask  not  your  indulgence." 
Gershuni  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  death. 

He  accepted  this  sentence  with  self-possessed  calmness, 
and  in  his  last  letter  to  his  comrades  he  wrote  that  his  life 
was  very  happy  and  that  he  had  no  complaint  against  fate. 
He  poured  out  his  heart  in  his  last  letter.  "I  did  not  know 
that  it  is  so  easy  to  die,"  he  wrote,  after  having  heard  his 
death  sentence. 

"Yes,  it  is  easy  to  die  when  one  has  lived  a  full  life,  having 
given  oneself  heart  and  soul  to  the  great  cause,  and  when 
one  dies  with  the  faith  that  his  death  will  bring  nearer  the 


90  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

day  of  redemption  for  all  the  toiling  and  down-trodden  masses. 
It  is  easy  to  die  knowing  that  all  is  not  ended,  that  there  are 
many  fighters  left  on  the  field  of  battle,  fighters  who  will  not 
retreat  before  the  onslaught  of  the  foe,  who  are  ready  to  die, 
and  that  in  their  place  are  coming  new  legions  from  the  ranks 
of  the  people.  Nowadays  it  is  easier  to  die,  for  we  are  work- 
ing hand  in  hand  with  the  proletariat  and  the  peasantry. 
Great  deeds  of  justice  and  truth  will  this  people  accomplish, 
after  they  are  all  triumphant." 

Gershuni  was  not  executed.  On  March  5,  1904,  the  death 
sentence  was  commuted  to  hard  labor  for  life.  He  was  kept 
in  the  fortress  of  Schliisselburg  for  some  time,  then  he  was 
transferred  to  Moscow,  where  he  was  put  into  the  Boutyrsky 
jail,  and  somewhat  later  he  was  sent  to  the  Akatuysky  prison, 
from  where  he  escaped.  He  tells  how  in  his  "Memoirs."  He 
was  placed  by  his  comrades,  revolutionists,  at  the  bottom 
of  a  barrel,  crouching  so  as  to  occupy  as  little  space  as 
possible.  Two  tubes  were  inserted  for  the  passage  of  air. 
These  led  to  the  surface  where  they  opened  in  holes 
which  could  hardly  be  noticed.  He  was  given  a  sharp 
dagger.  A  metal  plate,  in  the  form  of  a  hat  was  attached  to 
his  head.  Then  right  over  his  head  a  thick  leather  membrane 
was  fastened  on  a  hoop  to  the  sides  of  the  barrel.  On  top 
of  that  membrane  they  put  cabbage,  covered  up  the  barrel 
and  took  it  outside.  It  often  happened  that  in  passing  through 
the  prison  gates,  the  guard  would  stick  his  bayonet  through 
the  barrel  of  cabbage  to  see  that  there  was  nothing  being 
smuggled  out  of  the  jail,  but  this  time  the  guard  just  glanced 
at  the  barrel  and  let  the  prisoners  carry  it  out. 

Among  these  prisoners  were  Koulikovsky,  Sazonov  and 
other  revolutionists.  Gershuni  says  that  at  the  time  he  was 
strangely  calm,  almost  indifferent  to  what  was  going  on  out- 
side of  that  barrel.  The  cellar  where  the  barrel  was  supposed 
to  be  put  away  was  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
prison.  The  barrel  was  carried  for  several  minutes,  then  they 
took  it  down  into  the  cellar.  Here  he  heard  them  talk  and 
shout:  "Take  it  to  the  right,"  "Lift  it  up."  "Put  it  down."  etc. 
The  barrel  was  lowered,  put  down,  and  then  after  fussing  for 


BORIS  V.  SAVINKOV 
One  of  the  leaders  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party  of 
Socialists-Revolutionists.  Participated  in  the  assassination  of  the 
Minister  of  Interior,  Von  Plehve,  and  of  the  Grand  Duke,  Serghei 
A.lexandrovich.  Was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  escaped  to 
Switzerland.  Returned  to  Russia  after  the  March  Revolution  and 
was  appointed  Minister  of  War  in  Kerensky's  Cabinet. 


92  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

a  while  the  people  who  had  carried  it  out  must  have  disap- 
peared, for  it  became  quiet  again.  Now  another  danger 
menaced  him.  The  trouble  was  that  the  wife  of  the  warden 
and  the  wife  of  the  superintendent  thought  it  their  privilege 
to  use  the  cabbage  of  the  prisoners,  and  one  might  expect 
them  to  come  at  any  moment.  But  there  was  no  time  to  be 
lost.  With  his  dagger  Gershuni  cut  the  leather  cover  that 
was  over  him.  The  air  tubes  slipped  down,  the  cabbage  fell 
on  him  and  for  a  minute  he  was  steeped.  He  worked  hard, 
shook  off  the  cabbage,  and  having  freed  the  upper  part  of  his 
body,  began  to  rise  very  carefully.  But  no  sooner  did  he 
stick  his  head  out  of  the  barrel  than  he  noticed,  in  the  semi- 
darkness,  a  human  figure  stealthily  making  its  way  towards 
him.  This  was  one  of  the  revolutionists,  from  the  outside,  who 
had  managed  to  creep  in  through  an  improvised  passage  dug 
through  the  wall  and  carefully  disguised.  With  his  aid, 
Gershuni  got  out  of  the  barrel,  dressed  himself,  and  both 
began  to  creep  out  of  the  cellar  through  the  passage. 

In  one  place  the  opening  was  so  narrow  that  Gershuni 
thought  he  would  get  stuck  in  the  passage  and  never  be  able 
to  get  out.  But,  making  a  supreme  effort  and  having  badly 
injured  his  shoulders,  he  managed  to  make  some  headway 
and  finally  reached  the  exit.  Before  him  was  his  assistant  who 
was  not  very  robust.  They  had  to  lie  down  and  wait. 
Through  the  hole  one  could  see  the  prison.  From  the  prison 
windows  signals  were  to  be  given  when  they  were  to  move. 
The  cellar  was  situated  on  a  road,  open  on  all  sides,  and 
there  was  some  distance  between  the  cellar  and  the  place 
where  they  were  to  hide.  This  distance  was  visible  from 
the  prison.  And  there  were  all  kinds  of  people  passing  by  at 
all  times.  Now  somebody  came  by  carrying  two  pails  of  water 
suspended  from  a  yoke,  and  stopped  right  in  fiont  of  the  hole 
where  Gershuni  and  his  guide  were  lying.  This  was  a  very 
•critical  moment,  as  Gershuni  used  to  tell.  But,  having  rested 
for  two  or  three  minutes,  the  water-carrier  went  ahead.  Finally 
the  signal  was  given  from  the  prison  window  that  the  road 
was  free.  Instantly  the  two  of  them  crept  out  of  the  sub- 
terranean  passage   and   speedily  made  for  the  woods,  where 


Activities  of  the  Fighting  Organization  93 

they  could  hide  in  the  thicket.  At  the  foot  of  the  mountain 
a  wagon,  with  two  horses,  was  waiting  for  them.  Everything 
was  ready  for  their  trip,  and  Gershuni  sped  away.  Four  days 
later  he  was  in  Vladivostok,  where  he  read  a  telegram  about 
his  escape.  With  the  first  steamer  his  comrades  sent  him  to 
Japan.  For  twenty-four  hours  he  had  to  remain  under  loads 
of  rope  and  tarpaulin,  without  food,  of  course,  waiting  for 
the  time  when  it  would  be  safe  to  show  himself  on  the  steamer. 
One  more  day  passed,  in  agony,  and  he  landed  safely  in  Japan, 
among  many  immigrant-comrades. 

From  Nagasaki  Gershuni  went  to  Tokio,  where  the  Japa- 
nese Socialists  arranged  a  solemn  reception  in  his  honor  and 
a  send-off  party  before  his  departure  for  Yokohama,  from 
where  he  sailed  for  America,  and  then  for  Europe.  In  the 
United  States  Gershuni  was  enthusiastically  received.  During 
the  six  weeks  of  his  stay  in  America,  Gershuni  collected  over 
thirty  thousand  dollars  for  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists, which  money  he  turned  over  to  the  Central  Committee 
of  the  Party. 

Gershuni's  escape  caused  much  alarm  in  the  Tzar's  Gov- 
ernment circles.  Large  sums  were  offered  to  anyone  who 
would  catch  him,  and  very  soon  the  papers  were  full  of 
legends  of  people  who  had  caught  him  in  various  parts  of 
Russia.  But  the  real  Gershuni  remained  safe.  The  hard 
revolutionary  experiences  and  the  years  of  imprisonment,  how- 
ever, had  undermined  his  health,  and  in  1907  Gershuni  died 
in  France,  surrounded  bv  his  friends. 


G.  GAPON— on  Bloody  Sunday 


CHAPTER  VIII 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905 — Bloody  Sunday 


IN  1904  came  the  war  against  Japan,  a  war  condemned  by  all 
classes  of  the  Russian  people.  With  every  defeat  Russia 
suffered  in  the  East  grew  the  strength  of  the  oppositional 
forces  at  home.  The  ineffciency,  crookedness  and  graft  of 
official  Russia,  in  all  the  departments  that  supplied  the  men  on 
the  fighting  line,  roused  the  resentment  of  all  the  thinking 
elements.     The  general  indignation  expressed  itself  in  demon- 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905 


strations  whose  moral  force 
could  not  be  suppressed. 

In  July.  1904,  when  E. 
Sazonov.  a  member  of  the 
Fighting  Organization  of  the 
Party  of  Socialists  -  Revolu- 
tionists, assassinated  the 
Minister  of  Interior,  Von 
Plehve.  Nicholas  II  was 
scared  into  a  concession. 
He  turned  power  over  into 
the  hands  of  the  new  Min- 
ister of  Interior,  Prince 
Sviatopolk-Mirsky,  who  was 
to  attempt  a  "dictatorship  of 
the  heart''  like  that  short- 
lived one  of  Loris-Melikoff. 
The  press  heaved  a  sigh  of 
relief.  Rather  suddenly,  at  a 
hint  from  the  new  power,  the 
censorship  stopped  working.  Quite  radical  articles  were  per- 
mitted to  appear.  Even  a  Congress  held  by  the  Zemstvos,  in 
St.  Petersburg,  seemed  to  have  the  unspoken  approval  of 
Sviatopolk-Mirsky.  This  Congress  drew  up  a  resolution  re- 
questing reform  on  eleven  points,  which  included  the  inviola- 
bility of  persons  and  homes,  freedom  of  thought,  of  speech,  of 
the  press,  of  assemblage,  of  public  instruction,  civil  equality 
for  all  races  and  classes,  and  ended  with  a  request  for  a  repre- 
sentative assembly.  Liberals  the  country  over  approved  and 
accepted  the  "eleven  points,"  and  these  were  made  the  basis 
of  many  addresses  sent  to  the  Minister  of  Interior.  But  once 
more  the  power  of  Pobiedonostzev  proved  the  stronger  and 
Prince  Sviatopolk-Mirsky's  intentions  went  the  path  of  many 
good  bureaucratic  intentions. 

At  the  relaxation  of  the  censorship,  new  oppositional  organs 
had  sprung  into  being,  and  old  publications  had  become  quite 
bold.  Upon  the  insistence  of  Pobiedonostzev,  the  press  was 
once  more  prohibited  to  discuss  forbidden  subjects,  with  pen- 


E.  SAZOXOV 


96 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


alties  for  any  who  deviated  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  straight 
and  only  path.  But  the  numerous  meetings  at  which  the 
"eleven  points"  were  adopted  and  radical  resolutions  passed, 
showed  the  temper  of  the  people.     Theirs  was  no  longer  the 


E.  SAZONOV 

(in  prison) 

Sentenced    to   hard   labor   imprisonment    in    Siberia    for 

assassination  of  Von  Plehve.     Committed  suicide,  in  1913, 

in    protest    against    flogging   of    the   political   prisoners. 

spirit  of  non-resistance.    All  classes,  even  part  of  the  nobility, 

agreed  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  passing  of  the  old  order. 

The  Zemstvos  telegraphed  resolutions  to  the  Tzar,  requesting 

that  the  "eleven  points"  receive  his  consideration.     The  Tzar 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  9't 

responded  with  an  edict  that  hinted  at  vague  reforms  for  the 
Zemstvos,  press,  judiciary,  the  peasants  and  the  workers. 
But  these  reforms  were  to  be  carried  out  by  his  reactionary 
Ministers. 

However,  immediately  after  the  issuance  of  the  edict,  there 
appeared  a  "ukase"  in  which  those  people  who  had  dared  to 
request  reforms  were  rebuked  for  their  "impertinence"  and 
they  and  the  press  strictly  forbidden  to  discuss  subjects  in- 
jurious to  the  well-being  of  the  autocratic  State.  All  public 
meetings  were  declared  unlawful.  It  was  the  old  order  with 
added  oppressions. 

The  story  of  Bloody  Sunday  was  told  the  world  over.  On 
Sunday,  January  9,  1905,  a  day  intensely  cold,  with  snow  and 
piercing  wind,  tens  of  thousands  of  the  workers  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, men,  women  and  children,  carrying  ikons  and  singing 
"God  save  the  Tzar,"  marched  to  the  Winter  Palace  to  present 
a  petition  to  the  Tzar.  They  were  led  by  Father  Gapon,  a 
priest,  the  leader  of  the  Union  of  Russian  Workingmen.  an 
organization  which  existed  under  the  good-will  of  the  Min- 
istry of  Interior,  which  had  fostered  its  growth  as  a  counter 
force  to  Socialism. 

Their  petition  was  a  humble  plea  that  they  be  recognized  as 
human  beings,  they  who  were  "choked  by  despotism  and  irre- 
sponsibility." They  pleaded  for  the  most  elemental  of  human 
rights,  the  right  to  think  for  themselves,  to  meet,  to  discuss 
their  needs,  to  take  measures  for  the  improvement  of  their  own 
hard  lot.  They  begged  for  some  measure  of  just  dealing  at 
the  hands  of  the  Tzar's  officials.  They  ventured  to  suggest 
that  national  representation  was  indispensable  because  of  the 
vastness  of  Russia  and  the  immensity  of  her  needs,  needs 
that  the  officials  were  not  able  to  meet.  They  beseeched  their 
"little  father"  to  take  an  oath  to  comply  with  their  requests, 
so  as  to  make  Russia  happy.  They  declared  that  they  would 
rather  die  on  the  Square  before  his  palace,  than  live  on  with 
their  prayers  unanswered.  They  willingly  offered  their  lives 
as  a  sacrifice  to  suffering  Russia,  for  only  two  ways  were  open 
to  them,  "either  the  way  to  liberty  and  happiness,  or  the  way 
to  the  grave." 


98  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Knowing  that  an  order  had  been  given  to  surround  the 
Winter  Palace  with  troops  and  to  fire  on  the  peaceful  proces- 
sion of  workingmen,  Gapon  had,  the  day  before,  sent  letters 
to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  and  to  the  Tzar.  He  wrote 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior  as  follows  :* 

"Your  Excellency :  Workingmen  and  St.  Petersburg 
inhabitants  of  various  classes  desire  to  see  and  they 
must  see,  the  Tzar  on  9th  January  at  2  P.  M.  in  the 
Place  of  the  Winter  Palace,  in  order  personally  to  explain 
to  him  their  wants  and  the  wants  of  all  the  people.  The 
Tzar  has  nothing  to  apprehend.  I,  as  the  representative  of 
the  Union  of  Russian  Workingmen,  our  co-workers  and 
comrades,  and  even  so-called  revolutionary  groups  of  all  ten- 
dencies— we  guarantee  His  inviolability.  Let  Him  as  the  real 
Tzar  with  an  open  heart  come  out  to  His  people.  Let  Him 
accept  from  our  hands  the  petition !  All  this  is  necessary  for 
His  welfare  and  for  that  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Peters- 
burg and  of  the  Fatherland,  otherwise  the  moral  connection 
uniting  up  till  now  the  Russian  Tzar  with  the  Russian  people 
may  be  broken. 

"Your  great  moral  duty,  both  before  the  Tzar  and  before 
all  the  Russian  people,  is  to  present  immediately  to  the  Tzar 
these  lines  as  well  as  the  Petition  to  which  they  relate. 

"Say  to  the  Tzar  that  I,  the  workingmen,  and  many  thou- 
sands of  people  have  made  up  our  minds,  peacefully  and  with 
entire  trust,  but  with  irresistible  firmness,  to  appear  at  the 
Palace.  Let  Him  in  deeds,  and  not  in  manifestoes,  prove  His 
trust  in  the  people." 

To  the  Tzar,  Gapon  wrote  as  follows : 

"Sire:  Do  not  believe  the  Ministers;  they  are  cheating 
Thee  in  regard  to  the  real  state  of  affairs.  The  people  be- 
lieve in  Thee.  They  have  made  up  their  minds  to  gather  at 
the  Winter  Palace  to-morrow,  at  2  P.  M..  to  lay  their  wants 
before  Thee.  If  Thou  wilt  not  stand  before  them,  Thou  wilt 
break  that  spiritual  connection  which  unites  Thee  with  them. 


♦Being  unable,  at  present,  to  get  the  Russian  originals  of  Gapon's  letters 
and  the  petition  to  the  Tzar,  we  have  taken  the  liberty  of  using  the  trans- 
lations of  these  documents  given  in  "An  Economic  History  of  Russia,"  by 
James  Mavor,  pp.  468-474. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  99 

Their  belief  in  Thee  will  disappear.  The  shed  blood  will 
separate  Thee  from  them.  Do  not  fear  anything.  Stand 
tomorrow  before  the  people  and  accept  our  humblest  petition. 
I,  the  representative  of  the  workingmen,  and  my  comrades 
guarantee  the  inviolability  of  Thy  person." 

The  following  is  the  text  of  Gapon's  Petition  to  the  Tzar, 
which  was  intended  to  be  presented  on  January  9,  1905  : 

"Sire:  We,  workingmen  and  inhabitants  of  St.  Peters- 
burg of  various  classes,  our  wives  and  our  children  and 
our  helpless  old  parents,  come  to  Thee,  Sire,  to  seek  for 
truth  and  defense.  We  have  become  beggars  ;  we  have  been  op- 
pressed ;  we  are  burdened  by  toil  beyond  our  powers ;  we  are 
scoffed  at;  we  are  not  recognized  as  human  beings;  we  are 
treated  as  slaves  who  must  suffer  their  bitter  fate  and  who 
must  keep  silence.  We  suffered,  but  we  are  pushed  farther 
into  the  den  of  beggary,  lawlessness,  and  ignorance.  We  are 
choked  by  despotism  and  irresponsibility,  and  we  are  breath- 
less. We  have  no  more  power,  Sire;  the  limit  of  patience  has 
been  reached.  There  has  arrived  for  us  that  tremendous  mo- 
ment when  death  is  better  than  the  continuation  of  intolerable 
tortures.  We  have  left  off  working,  and  we  have  declared 
to  the  masters  that  we  shall  not  begin  to  work  until  they 
comply  with  our  demands.  We  beg  but  little:  we  desire  only 
that  without  which  life  is  not  life,  but  hard  labor  and  eternal 
torture.  The  first  request  which  we  made  was  that  our  masters 
should  discuss  our  needs  with  us ;  but  this  they  refused,  on  the 
ground  that  no  right  to  make  this  request  is  recognized  by 
law.  They  also  declared  to  be  illegal  our  requests  to  diminish 
the  working  hours  to  eight  hours  daily,  to  agree  with  us  about 
the  prices  for  our  work,  to  consider  our  misunderstandings 
with  the  inferior  administration  of  the  mills,  to  increase  the 
wages  for  the  labor  of  women  and  of  general  laborers,  so  that 
the  minimum  daily  wage  should  be  one  ruble  per  day,  to 
abolish  overtime  work,  to  give  us  medical  attention  without 
insulting  us.  to  arrange  the  workshops  so  that  it  might  be 
possible  to  work  there,  and  not  find  in  them  death  from  awful 
draughts  and  from  rain  and  snow.  All  these  requests  appeared 
to  be,  in  the  opinion  of  our  masters  and  of  the  factory  and  mill 


100  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


administrations,  illegal.  Everyone  of  our  requests  was  a 
crime,  and  the  desire  to  improve  our  condition  was  regarded 
by  them  as  impertinence,  and  as  offensive  to  them. 

"Sire,  here  are  many  thousands  of  us,  and  all  are  human 
beings  only  in  appearance.  In  reality  in  us;  as  in  all  Russian 
people,  there  is  not  recognized  any  human  right,  not  even  the 
right  of  speaking,  thinking,  meeting,  discussing  our  needs, 
taking  measures  for  the  improvement  of  our  condition.  We 
have  been  enslaved,  and  enslaved  under  the  auspices  of  Thy 
officials,  with  their  assistance,  and  with  their  co-operation. 
Everyone  of  us  who  dares  to  raise  a  voice  in  defense  of 
working-class  and  popular  interests  is  thrown  into  jail  or  is 
sent  into  banishment.  For  the  possession  of  good  hearts  and 
sensitive  souls  we  are  punished  as  for  crimes.  Even  to  pity 
a  beaten  man — a  man  tortured  and  without  rights — means  to 
commit  a  heavy  crime.  All  the  people — workingmen  as  well 
as  peasants — are  handed  over  to  the  discretion  of  the  officials 
of  the  Government,  who  are  thieves  of  the  property  of  the 
State — robbers  who  not  only  take  no  care  of  the  interests  of 
the  people,  but  who  trample  these  interests  under  their  feet. 
The  Government  officials  have  brought  the  country  to  com- 
plete destruction,  have  involved  it  in  a  detestable  war,  and 
have  further  and  further  led  it  to  ruin.  We,  workingmen,  have 
no  voice  in  the  expenditure  of  the  enormous  amounts  rajsed 
from  us  in  taxes.  We  do  not  know  even  where  and  for  what 
is  spent  the  money  collected  from  a  beggared  people.  The 
people  are  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  expressing  their 
desires,  and  they  now  demand  that  they  be  allowed  to  take 
part  in  the  introduction  of  taxes  and"  in  the  expenditure  of 
them. 

"The  workingmen  are  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  organ- 
izing themselves  in  unions  for  the  defense  of  their  interests. 

"Sire,  is  it  in  accordance  with  divine  law,  by  grace  of  which 
Thou  reignest?  Is  it  not  better  to  die,  better  for  all  of  us 
toiling  people  of  Russia,  and  to  let  the  capitalist  exploiters  of 
the  working  class,  officials,  "grafters,"  and  robbers  of  the 
Russian  people  live?  This  is  before  us,  Sire,  and  this  has 
brought  us  to  the  walls  of  Thy  Palace.     We  are  seeking  here 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  101 

the  last  salvation.  Do  not  refuse  assistance  to  Thy  people. 
Bring  them  from  the  grave  of  legal  oppression,  beggary,  and 
ignorance.  Give  their  destiny  into  their  own  hands.  Cast 
away  from  them  the  intolerable  oppression  of  officials.  De- 
stroy the  wall  between  Thyself  and  Thy  people,  and  let  them 
rule  the  country  together  with  Thyself.  Art  Thou  not  placed 
there  for  the  happiness  of  Thy  people?  But  this  happiness 
the  officials  snatch  from  our  hands.  It  does  not  come  to  us. 
We  get  only  distress  and  humiliation.  Look  without  anger, 
attentively  upon  our  requests.  They  are  directed,  not  to  evil, 
but  to  good  for  us  as  well  as  for  Thee.  Sire !  not  impudence, 
but  consciousness  of  needs,  of  emerging  from  a  situation  in- 
tolerable for  us  all,  becomes  articulate  in  us. 

"Russia  is  too  great.  Its  necessities  are  too  various  and 
numerous  for  officials  alone  to  rule  it.  National  representation 
is  indispensable.  It  is  indispensable  that  people  should  assist 
and  should  rule  themselves.  To  them  only  are  known  their 
real  necessities.  Do  not  reject  their  assistance,  accept  it,  order 
immediately  the  convocation  of  representatives  of  the  Russian 
land  from  all  ranks,  including  representatives  from  the  work- 
ingmen.  Let  there  be  capitalists  as  well  as  workingmen — 
official  and  priest,  doctor  and  teacher — let  all,  whatever  they 
may  be,  elect  their  representatives.  Let  everyone  be  equal  and 
free  in  the  right  of  election,  and  for  this  purpose  order  that  the 
elections  for  the  Constitutional  Assembly  be  carried  on  under 
the  condition  of  universal,  equal  and  secret  voting.  This  is 
the  most  capital  of  our  requests.  In  it  and  upon  it  everything 
is  based.  This  is  the  principal  and  only  plaster  for  our 
painful  wounds,  without  which  our  wounds  will  fester  and 
will  bring  us  rapidly  near  to  death.  Yet  one  measure  alone 
cannot  heal  our  wounds.  Other  measures  are  also  indis- 
pensable. Directly  and  openly  as  to  a  Father  we  speak  to 
Thee,  Sire,  about  them,  in  person,  for  all  the;  toiling  classes 
of  Russia.     The  following  are  indispensable: 

I — Measures   to  counteract  the  ignorance   and   legal 
oppression  of  the  Russian  People 

1.  The  immediate  release  and  return  of  all  who  have  suf- 


102  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

fered  for  political  and  religious  convictions,  for  strikes,  and 
national  peasant  disorders. 

2.  The  immediate  declaration  of  freedom  and  of  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  person — freedom  of  speech  and  press,  freedom  of 
meetings,  and  freedom  of  conscience  in  religion. 

3.  Universal  and  compulsory  element? ry  education  of  the 
people  at  the  charge  of  the  State. 

4.  Responsibility  of  the  Ministers  before  the  people  and 
guarantee  that  the  Government  will  be  law-abiding. 

5.  Equality  before  the  law  of  all,  without  exception. 

6.  Separation  of  the  Church  from  the  State. 

II — Measures  against  the  poverty  of  the  people : 

1.  Abolition  of  indirect  taxes  and  the  substitution  of  a  pro- 
gressive income  tax. 

2.  Abolition  of  the  Redemption  Instalments,  cheap  credit, 
and  gradual  transference  of  the  land  to  the  people. 

3.  The  orders  for  the  military  and  naval  ministries  should 
be  filled  in  Russia,  and  not  abroad. 

4.  The  cessation  of  the  war  by  the  will  of  the  people. 

Ill — Measures  against  the  oppression  of  labor: 

1.  Abolition  of  the  factory  inspectorships. 

2.  Institution  at  factories  and  mills  of  permanent  commit- 
tees of  elected  workers,  which,  together  with  the  administra- 
tion (of  the  factories)  would  consider  the  complaints  of  in- 
dividual workers.  Discharge  of  workingmen  should  not  take 
place  otherwise  than  by  resolution  of  this  committee. 

3.  Freedom  of  organization  of  co-operative  societies  of  con- 
sumers and  of  labor  trade  unions,  immediately. 

4.  Eight-hour  working  day  and  regulation  of  overtime  work- 
ing. 

5.  Freedom  of  the  struggle  of  labor  against  capital,  imme- 
diately. 

6.  Normal  wages,  immediately. 

7.  Participation  of  working-class  representatives  in  the 
working  out  of  projects  of  law  concerning  workmen's  State 
insurance,  immediately. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  103 

"Here,  Sire,  are  our  principal  necessities  with  which  we 
come  to  Thee !  Only  by  the  satisfaction  of  these  is  the  release 
of  our  native  land  from  slavery  and  beggary  possible ;  only 
by  this  means  is  possible  the  flourishing  of  our  native  land, 
and  is  possible  for  workingmen  to  organize  themselves  for 
the  defense  of  their  interests  against  impudent  exploitation  of 
capitalists  and  of  the  officials'  government  which  is  plunder- 
ing and  choking  the  people.  Order  and  take  an  oath  to  comply 
with  these  requests,  and  Thou  wilt  make  Russia  happy  and 
famous  and  Thou  wilt  impress  Thy  name  in  our  hearts  and 
in  the  hearts  of  our  posterity  to  all  eternity.  If  Thou  wilt 
not  order  and  wilt  not  answer  our  prayer — we  shaH  die  here 
on  this  place  before  Thy  Palace. 

"We  have  nowhere  to  go  farther  and  nothing  for  which  to 
go.  We  have  only  two  ways — either  towards  liberty  and  hap- 
piness or  into  the  grave.  .  .  .  Let  our  life  be  a  sacrifice  for 
Russia,  which  has  suffered  to  the  extreme  limit.  We  do  not 
regret  this  sacrifice.    We  willingly  offer  it." 

Almost  one  thousand  five  hundred  dead  and  wounded, 
among  them  women  and  children,  were  truly  sacrificed  to  suf- 
fering Russia.  Grand  Duke  Vladimir,  uncle  of  the  Tzar,  ordered 
the  troops  to  fire  at  the  unarmed  workers,  and  to  keep  on 
shooting  until  they  were  completely  dispersed.  Thus  ended 
the  appeal  of  the  poor,  miserable,  long-suffering  masses  to 
their  "little  father" ! 

Affected  by  this  terrible  crime  against  the  peaceful  demon- 
strants  whom  he  had  led,  Gapon  again  wrote  to  the  Tzar, 
and  addressed  an  open  letter  to  the  Russian  Socialist  Parties. 
Here  is  his  letter  to  the  Tzar: 

"With  naive  belief  in  thee  as  father  of  thy  people,  I  was 
going  peacefully  to  thee  with  the  children  of  these 
very  people.  Thou  must  have  known,  thou  didst  know 
this.  The  innocent  blood  of  workers,  their  wives  and 
children,  lies  forever  between  thee,  O  soul  destroyer,  and 
the  Russian  people.  Moral  connection  between  thee  and  them 
may  never  be  any  more.  The  mighty  river  during  its  over- 
flowing thou  art  already  unable  to  stem  by  any  half  measures, 
even  by  a  Zemsky  Sobor  (Popular  Assembly).     Bombs  and 


104  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

dynamite.,  the  terror  by  individuals  and  by  masses,  against 
thy  breed  and  against  the  robbers  of  rightless  people — all  this 
must  be  and  shall  absolutely  be.  A  sea  of  blood — unexampled 
— will  be  shed.  Because  of  thee,  because  of  thy  whole  family, 
Russia  may  perish.  Once  for  all,  understand  this  and  remem- 
ber, better  soon  with  all  thy  family  abdicate  the  throne  of 
Russia  and  give  thyself  up  to  the  Russian  people  for  trial. 
Pity  thy  children  and  the  Russian  lands,  O  thou  offerer  of 
peace  for  other  countries  and  blood  drunkard  for  thine  own ! 

"Otherwise  let  all  blood  which  has  to  be  shed  fall  upon 
thee,  Hangman,  and  thy  kindred ! 

"GEORGE  GAPON. 

"Postscriptum — Know  that  this  letter  is  the  justifying 
document  of  the  coming  revolutionary  terroristic  occurrences 
in  Russia.  "G.  G." 

The  following  is  Gapon's  appeal  to  the  Russian  Socialist 
Parties : 

"The  bloody  January  days  in  St.  Petersburg  and  the  rest 
of  Russia  brought  the  oppressed  working  class  face  to 
face  with  the  autocratic  regime,  the  blood  drunkard 
Tzar  at  its  head,  and  the  Great  Russian  Revolution  began. 
Everybody  for  whom  national  liberty  is  really  dear  is  under 
the  necessity  of  winning  or  dying.  Conscious  as  I  am  of  the 
importance  of  the  historical  moment  through  which  we  a're 
living  under  the  present  situation  of  affairs,  and  being  first  of 
all  a  revolutionist  and  a  man  of  action,  I  summon  all  the 
socialist  parties  of  Russia  to  enter  immediately  into  agreement 
among  themselves  and  to  begin  the  business  of  armed  uprising 
against  Tsarism.  All  the  forces  of  every  party  should  be 
mobilized.  The  technical  plan  of  conflict  should  be  a  common 
one  for  all.  Bombs  and  dynamite,  terror  by  individuals  and 
by  masses — everything  which  may  contribute  to  the  national 
uprising.  The  first  purpose  is  the  overwhelming  of  the  autoc- 
racy. The  provisional  revolutionary  government  immediately 
proclaims  amnesty  for  all  fighters  for  political  and  religious 
freedom,  immediately  arms  the  people,  and  immediately  con- 
vokes a  constituent  assembly  on  the  basis  of  a  universal, 
equal,  secret,  and  direct  electoral  law.     To  work,  comrades ! 


The  Beginning  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  105 

Ahead,  for  the  fight!  Let  us  repeat  the  cry  of  the  St.  Peters- 
burg workingmen  on  9th  January,  'Liberty  or  death!'  Every 
delay  or  dispute  is  a  crime  against  the  people  whose  interests 
you  are  defending.  Having  given  all  my  powers  for  service 
to  the  people,  from  the  depths  of  whom  I  myself  originated, 
having  irrevocably  connected  my  fate  with  the  struggle 
against  the  oppressors  and  exploiters  of  the  working  class,  I 
naturally  with  all  my  heart  and  all  my  soul  will  be  with  those 
who  are  undertaking  the  task  of  the  real  emancipation  of  the 
proletariat  and  of  the  whole  toiling  mass  from  capitalistic 
oppression  and  political  slavery." 

As  a  revolutionary  leader,  Gapon  disappeared  from  the 
scene  as  suddenly  and  as  unexpectedly  as  he  had  appeared  on 
it.  But  the  movement  towards  the  Winter  Palace  on  January 
9.  1905.  which  is  connected  with  his  name,  may  be  considered 
the  opening  scene  of  the  Revolution  which  occurred  in  Russia 
that  year. 


CHAPTER  IX 
The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution 

TO  teach  this  presumptuous  people,  this  people  who 
dared  to  tell  their  Tzar  what  he  should  do,  the  most 
extremely  repressive  measures  were  now  put  into  force. 
The  Chief  of  the  Moscow  Police,  General  Trepov,  a  son  of 
the  Trepov  who  had  been  shot  at  by  Vera  Zasulich,  and  as 
ruthless  a  man  as  his  father  had  been,  was  appointed  Governor- 
General  of  St.  Petersburg.  Trepov  believed  in  the  power  of 
force,  the  telling  force  of  the  sabre  and  the  knout.  He  was  not 
a  bit  loath  to  use  these  against  the  workingmen  and  the  youth 
of  the  ''intelligentsia,"  for  daring  to  express  themselves  or 
daring  to  gather  to  discuss  current  political  matters.  In  Mos- 
cow, the  Governor-General,  Grand  Duke  Serghei  Alexandro- 
vich,  carried  out  the  Government's  policy  in  a  particularly 
cruel  spirit. 

The  workingmen  throughout  the  country  retaliated  in  the  only 
way  possible,  by  disturbances  and  strikes,  one  after  another. 
The  university  students,  in  protest  to  the  new  repressions, 
walked  out,  and  the  universities  simply  had  to  shut  down. 
The  Government  declared  martial  law  in  Poland,  in  the  Cau- 
casus and  over  all  railways.  On  February  4,  a  young  revolu- 
tionist, a  member  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of  the  Party 
of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  Ivan  Kaliaiev,  threw  a  bomb  and 
killed  the  pitiless  reactionary,  Grand  Duke  Serghei  Alexandra- , 
vich. 

The  heroic  figure  of  Ivan  Kaliaiev  deserves  at  least  a  short 
characterization.  He  was  born  on  the  24th  of  June,  1877,  in 
Warsaw.  In  1888  he  entered  the  Apukhtinsky  Gymnasium  in 
that  city.  The  year  1897-1898  he  spent  as  a  student  at  the  Mos- 
cow University,  studying  history,  languages  and  literature.  It 
was  at  that  time  that  he  began  to  write,  first  for  the  columns 
of  the  "Russky  Listok"  and  then  for  the  "Courier,"  "Severny 
Kray"  and  other  Russian   and   Polish  publications.     He  had 


The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution 


107 


not  joined  the  revolutionary  movement  then,  but  was  busy 
trying-  to  master  the  doctrines  of  Marxism,  which  were  being 
widely  discussed  at  the  time. 

In  the  fall  of  1898  Kaliaiev  transferred  to  the  St.  Petersburg 
University,  where  he  enrolled  in  the  faculty  of  law.  He  spent 
the  winter  almost  entirely  at  his   studies.     In  the   spring  of 


IVAN   KALIAIEV 
(Eighteen  years  of  age.    In  Russian  high  school  uniform.) 

1899  serious  disturbances  broke  out  among  the  students,  in 
protest  against  the  knouting  of  some  of  their  number. 
Kaliaiev  joined  the  rebels  and  took  an  active  and  prominent 
part  in  these  uprisings.  He  wrote  and  printed  the  proclama- 
tions, he  agitated  in  the  restaurant  and  in  the  lecture  halls  of 
the  University.  He  made  revolutionary  speeches.  All  this  re- 
sulted in  his  arrest. 


108  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

After  serving-  a  three  months'  sentence  in  jail,  he  was  ban- 
ished to  Ekaterinoslav  for  two  years,  to  live  under  the  constant 
surveillance  of  the  police.  There  he  joined  the  local  committee 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Party,  and  for  the  first  time  took  an 
active  part  in  real  revolutionary  work.  The  term  of  his  sentence 
having  expired,  he  went  to  Warsaw.  Later  he  went  abroad 
and  arrived  in  Lemberg  in  January,  1902.  Desiring  to  become 
better  acquainted  with  the  publication  "Iscra,"  the  organ  of 
the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Workingmen's  Party,  he 
left  Lemberg  for  Berlin.  On  his  way  he  was  arrested  by  the 
Prussian  authorities  in  the  town  of  Moscovitzy,  on  the  Rus- 
sian-German frontier.  A  few  pamphlets  and  a  few  copies  of 
the  "Iscra"  were  sufficient  cause  for  turning  him  over  to  the 
Russian  authorities,  after  having  kept  him  under  arrest  for 
three  weeks.  As  a  result  he  was  locked  up  in  the  fortress  of 
Warsaw. 

This  arrest  was  the  turning  point  in  his  life.  From  Marxism 
and  the  Social-Democratic  Party,  he  turned  to  the  principles 
of  the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People,"  which  became 
his  religion.  In  this  religion  he  believed  with  all  the  faith 
and  all  the  enthusiasm  of  which  his  frank,  revolutionary  and 
deeply  democratic  soul  was  capable.  In  the  summer  of  the 
same  year  he  was  released  from  the  fortress  and  sent  to  Yaro- 
slavl to  await  trial.  There  he  engaged  in  journalism  and  other 
literary  work,  and  for  the  first  time  entered  into  relations  with 
the  Socialists-Revolutionists.  In  the  fall  of  1903  he  had 
become  a  member  of  the  Party  and  had  placed  himself  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Central  Committee. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1905,  Ivan  Kaliaiev  threw  a  bomb 
into  the  carriage  of  Grand  Duke  Serghei  Alexandrovich,  the 
ruthless  Governor-General  of  Moscow.  On  the  5th  of  April 
the  Court  of  Special  Sessions  of  the  Senate  sentenced  him  to 
death. 

After  listening  to  the  verdict.  Kaliaiev  said  :  "I  am  happy  to 
hear  the  sentence ;  I  hope  you  will  have  the  courage  to  execute 
it  just  as  openly  and  publicly  as  I  have  executed  the  sentence 


The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution 


109 


of  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists.  Learn  to  look 
straight  in  the  face  of  the 
coming  Revolution." 

On  the  10th  of  May,  at  3 
A.  M.,  the  sentence  was  exe- 
cuted secretly  within  the  walls 
of  the  Fortress  of  Schliissel- 
burg. 

The  following  is  the  story, 
as  related  by  an  eye-witness, 
of  the  last  few  hours  before 
the  grim  sentence  was  exe- 
cuted : 

"As  soon  as  the  boat  bring- 
ing Ivan  Kaliaiev  to  the 
Fortress  appeared  on  the 
Nieva,  all  the  women  and  chil- 
dren who  lived  in  the  Fortress 
and  who  were  not  in  church 
were  ordered  to  hide  themselves  in  their  homes,  shut  the  win- 
dows and  not  look  out  into  the  street.  Troops  were  stationed 
everywhere  to  prevent  any  civilian  from  approaching  the  place 
where  the  prisoner  was  supposed  to  pass. 

"Kaliaiev  was  brought  into  the  Fortress  and  led  into  a  room 
known  as  the  'work-room.'  This  room  is  small ;  it  has  two 
windows,  from  which  you  can  see  only  a  wooden  fence  sur- 
rounding a  few  flower-beds,  which  usually  belong  to  the 
prison  guards. 

"Kaliaiev  was  perfectly  calm  and  spent  most  of  his  last 
day  writing. 

"Though  it  was  a  spring  day.  the  weather  was  quite  chilly. 
During  the  afternoon  Kaliaiev  lay  down  on  the  bed  to  take  a 
rest,  covering  himself  with  a  blanket.  The  chill  of  the  cell 
compelled  him  to  ask  the  guards  for  an  additional  blanket. 
Not  to  be  misunderstood,  he  explained :  'Don't  think  that  I  am 
shivering  with  fear;  T  am  simply  cold,  and  T  would  ask  you 
to  erive  me  another  blanket.' 


IVAN   KALIAIEV 

In  prison,  after  the  assassination 
(  from  an  old  photograph) 


110  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"His  request  was  immediately  granted. 

"Kaliaiev  wrote  almost  all  day.  He  covered  a  number  of 
sheets,  but  before  he  went  to  his  death,  he  crossed  out  all  he 
had  written  with  the  exception  of  the  famous  saying-  of  Peter 
the  Great,  before  the  battle  of  Poltava:  'And  as  regards 
Peter,  know — his  life  is  not  so  dear  to  him  as  Russia's  happi- 
ness.' He  also  left  a  letter  to  his  mother,  written  half  an  hour 
before  the  execution.  This  was  taken  by  the  Commander  of 
the  Fortress  and  transmitted  to  the  addressee  through  the 
police. 

"The  hangman  who  was  to  execute  the  sentence  had  been 
kept  at  the  Fortress  waiting  for  his  victim  since  the  8th 
of  May.  He  was  a  husky  man,  dark,  with  large, 
coarse  features.  This  contemptible  creature,  Alexander 
Filipieff,  had  been  sentenced  to  death  for  the  murder  of  about 
seven  people.  He  had  been  pardoned  on  the  condition  that  he 
would  serve  as  executioner.  For  every  execution  the  term  of  his 
imprisonment  was  to  be  shortened;  besides,  there  was  a  mone- 
tary reward  for  every  man  that  he  executed.  In  May.  1905, 
he  was  a  prisoner  who  was  to  be  brought  to  the  Fortress  in  a 
police  boat,  but  by  August  of  the  same,  year  he  was  riding 
about  freely  without  any  guard  and  not  in  police,  but  in  pas- 
senger boats,  for  by  that  time  the  term  of  his  imprisonment 
had  expired,  due  to  the  great  number  of  revolutionists  hanged 
in  the  various  parts  of  Russia  during  that  summer.  In  the 
Fortress  of  Schlusselburg-  he  spent  his  time,  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  his  victim,  drinking  vodka  and  smoking  very  heavily. 

"At  9  o'clock  next  morning  the  Prosecuting  Attorney  came 
to  the  prison  cell,  together  with  the  Superintendent,  and 
informed  Kaliaiev  that  he  would  be  executed  that  night. 
Kaliaiev  listened  calmly  to  the  announcement  that  he  would 
be  dead  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours.  He  had  asked  his 
Attorney  to  witness  the  execution  and  he  kept  on  asking 
whether  the  Attorney  had  not  arrived.  But.  although  his 
Attorney  had  come  to  the  Fortress,  asking  that  he.  be  per- 
mitted to  see  Kaliaiev,  the  permission  was  not  granted. 

"At    about    10   o'clock   the    prison    priest    entered    the    cell. 


The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution  111 

Kaliaiev  told  him  that  though  he  was  religious,  he  did  not 
believe  in  the  church  ritual,  and  added  that  he  was  ready  to 
die  and  that  he  was  through  with  worldly  matters  forever. 
However,  as  he  felt  that  the  priest  was  a  good  man,  he  con- 
cluded, 'Let  me  kiss  you  as  a  good  man.'  They  kissed  each 
other,  and  the  priest  left  Kaliaiev.  Soon  after  the  priest's 
departure,  Kaliaiev  wrote  the  following  letier  to  his  mother: 
"'Dear,  beloved  Mother: 

And  so  I  am  going  to  die.  I  am  happy  that  I  am  able 
to  control  myself  to  the  very  end.  Let  your  sorrow, 
my  dear  mother,  sisters  and  brothers,  be  drowned  in 
the  rays  of  that  light  which  permeates  my  triumphant 
spirit. 

Good-bye.  Regards  to  all  who  knew  me  and  who  re- 
member me. 

I  beg  you  to  preserve  the  purity  of  our  father's 
name. 

Don't  grieve,  don't  cry.  Farewell.  I  am  always 
with  you. 

Yours. 
IVAN  KALIAIEV." 

"Having  steeled  himself  for  death,  Kaliaiev  asked  after  mid- 
night that  the  execution  be  carried  out  as  soon  as  possible. 
But  they  had  to  wait  for  the  dawn. 

"It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  .  .  .  Into  Kaliaiev's  room 
came  the  Superintendent,  together  with  the  hangman,  who  was 
dressed  all  in  red.  He  wore  a  crimson  blouse  and  crimson 
breeches,  a  red  night-cap,  and  a  rope  around  his  waist,  to 
which  was  attached  a  knout. 

"The  hangman  approached  Kaliaiev,  tied  his  hands  behind 
his  back,  and  Kaliaiev  was  led  out  by  the  Superintendent 
into  the  yard,  where  the  scaffold  had  been  erected.  The  hang- 
man followed. 

"In  the  yard  were  assembled  all  those  who  had  been  invited 
to  the  execution,  a  company  of  privates  and  all  the  commis- 
sioned officers  that  were  free  from  prison  duties.  Kaliaiev, 
dressed  in  black  and  wearing  a  black  felt  hat.  mounted  the 
scaffold. 

"Standing  motionless  on  the  scaffold,  he  listened  to  the  read- 


112  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

ing  of  the  sentence.  This  done,  the  priest  aproached  him  with 
a  cross  in  his  hand,  but  Kaliaiev  said :  'I  have  told  you  already 
that  I  have  done  with  life  and  that  I  am  ready  to  die.'  The 
priest  moved  away. 

"The  hangman  approached  the  prisoner,  slipped  a  shroud 
over  his  head,  helped  him  mount  the  stool,  as  this  could  not 
be  done  without  aid,  and  then  threw  the  noose  around  his  neck, 
and  kicked  away  the  stool  with  his  foot.  Kaliaiev's  body  hung 
in  the  air.  Scarcely  anyone  could  look  at  the  man,  who 
remained  hanging  for  thirty  minutes.  A)l  stood  silent  near 
the  scaffold.  Thirty  minutes  later  the  executioner  took 
Kaliaiev's  body  down.  The  fortress  doctor,  who  was  present, 
examined  the  heart  and  pulse,  but  it  was  already  an  unneces- 
sary formality.     Kaliaiev  was  dead. 

"His  body  was  placed  in  a  wooden  casket.  The  soldiers 
buried  it  outside  of  the  Fortress  wall,  between  the  mound  that 
surrounds  the  Fortress  on  the  side  of  the  lake  and  the  King's 
tower." 

On  this  very  same  spot  were  buried  all  those  who  were 
executed  in  the  Fortress  in  the  eighties  of  the  last  century. 


KALIAIEV'S  act  resulted  in  another  conciliatory  promise 
from  Nicholas  II.  The  Tzar  declared,  in  an  edict,  that 
he  had  resolved  "to  summon  the  most  worthy  men 
elected  by  the  people  to  participate  in  considering  and  drafting 
legislative  measures." 

But  the  country  could  no  longer  be  pacified  by  a  prom- 
ise that  they  were  almost  certain  would  not  be  kept.  The 
Social-Democrats  organized  demonstrations  and  strikes  in 
industrial  districts.  The  activity  of  the  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists among  the  peasantry  caused  whole  villages  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  to  rise  in  rebellion.  The  peasants  addressed  peti- 
tions to  the  Tzar  demanding  not  only  agrarian  reforms  but 
political  ones  as  well.  In  some  provinces  they  did  not  wait  for 
any  law,  but  simply  appropriated  the  land  from  the  owners. 

Unions  were  organized  all  over  the  country.  Professor 
Paul  Alilyukov  and  his  friends  were  active  in  organizing  pro- 


The  Rising  Tide  of  Revolution  113 

fessional  unions  of  all  sorts,  among  lawyers,  physicians, 
authors,  teachers,  clerks,  etc.  All  these  unions  were  incorpor- 
ated into  one  Union  of  Unions. 

In  March,  with  the  country  defeated  at  Mukden  and  Tsu- 
shima, these  growing  oppositional  forces  gathered  strength 
and  daring.  The  Zemstvos  called  a  congress  in  Moscow.  A 
deputation  was  sent  to  the  Tzar.  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov*,  Prince 
D.  I.  Shakhovsky,  Prince  Serghie  Trubetskoy,  Prince  P.  D. 
Dolgorukov,  I.  I.  Petrunkevitch,  F.  I.  Rodicht-v,  Count  P.  A. 
Hayden,  M.  F.  Fiodorov  and  others,  men  prominent  in  the 
liberal  movement,  made  up  this  deputation.  Prince  Trubet- 
skoy was  the  spokesman.  In  the  name  of  the  Zemstvos,  he 
made  a  frank  address  to  the  Tzar,  asking  that  a  repre- 
sentative body  of  people  be  called,  the  representatives  to  be 
equally  elected  by  all  classes.  He  declared  that  the  time  was 
a  crucial  one,  and  that  much  depended  on  the  Tzar's  attitude. 
M.  F.  Fiodorov  also  made  a  speech  along  similar  lines. 

The  Tzar's  reply  showed  that  he  realized  his  straits.  He 
told  these  representatives  to  cast  aside  all  doubt,  that  his 
will,  "the  will  of  the  Tzar- — to  summon  representatives  of  the 
people — was  unshakable." 

This  reply  of  the  Tzar  created  a  furore.  But  the  rejoicing 
was  short-lived,  for  the  all-powerful  bureaucrats  immediately 
forbade  the  press,  under  severe  penalties,  to  discuss  the  coming 
Assembly.  The  spirit  of  unrest  continued  to  grow.  The  Union 
of  Unions  combined  forces  with  the  Peasants'  Union,  which 
was  already  under  the  influence  of  the  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists. In  June  one  of  the  battleships  of  the  Black  Sea  Fleet, 
the  Potiomkin,  mutineed.  The  crew  killed  all  the  officers. 
The  country  was  truly  up  in  arms.  The  Tzar  was  forced  to 
keep  his  word. 


•Later  Prime  Minister  in  the      Russian  Provisional  Government. 


CHAPTER   X 

On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905 

ON  the  3rd  day  of  August  a  Manifesto  appeared,  an- 
nouncing the  establishment  of  the  Imperial  Duma. 
It  was  evident  from  the  Manifesto  that  the  Duma 
representatives  were  to  be  elected  according  to  a  very  un- 
democratic law  and  that  its  powers  were  to  be  very  limited. 
It  was  not  given  any  legislative  powers,  only  consultative. 
Needless  to  say,  the  nation  was  not  satisfied. 

The  Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  of  which  Paul  Milyu- 
kov  is  at  present  the  leader,  really  took  root  then,  in  a  second 
Zemstvos'  Congress  held  in  Moscow.  Various  nationalities 
participated  in  this  Congress,  which  declared  for  a  constitu- 
tional government. 

The  Government  swayed  between  fear  that  it  had  already 
granted  too  much,  and  concern  that  perhaps  it  were  wise  to 
make  further  concessions.  One  day  the  universities  were 
granted  a  pseudo-autonomy,  and  the  next  the  press  was  more 
tightly  gagged.  Meanwhile  strikes  were  spreading  throughout 
the  country,  and  the  peasants  in  the  villages  appropriated  and 
pillaged  estates.  The  entire  land  was  in  the  throes  of  Revolu- 
tion. 

In  October,  as  a  climax  to  the  disturbances,  manifestations 
and  strikes  all  over  the  land,  a  general  political  strike,  was 
declared.  This  lasted  for  about  two  weeks,  beginning  with  the 
seventh  day  of  the  month.  The  Moscow  railways  began  it. 
Seven  hundred  fifty  thousand  employees,  engaged  on  over- 
twenty-six  thousand  miles  of  railroad,  walked  out  in  a  brief 
time.  The  street  railway  employees  followed  suit.  Telegraph 
and  postal  service  stopped,  and  very  soon,  in  fact,  every  trade 
and  industry  had  stopped  functioning.  Many  towns  were  cut 
off  from  communication  with  one  another.  Food  distribution 
stopped.  All  the  every-day  activities  upon  which  the  very 
existence  of  a  nation  depends,  were  at  a  standstill.  The  Cen- 
tral Strike  Committee,  in  possession  of  engines,  was  keeping 


On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  115 

the  strikers  well-posted  on  events.  It  was  indeed  a  crucial 
moment  for  the  Tzar's  Government.  It  was  very  evident  that 
the  country  was  in  no  mood  for  vacillating  half-measures. 

Nicholas   II,  now  thoroughly  frightened,   dismissed   Pobie- 
donostzev,  the  cornerstone  of  the  reaction,  appointed  Count 

©Witte  Premier  of  Russia,  and  issued  the  Manifesto  of  October 
17,  granting  the  people  "inviolability  of  person,  freedom  of 
thought,  speech,  assemblage  and  organization."  This  Mani- 
festo also  granted  the  electoral  right  to  many  classes  not  per- 
mitted representation  in  the  Imperial  Duma,  by  the  previous 
Manifesto.  It  further  declared  that  no  new  law  would  be 
enacted  without  the  approval  of  the  Imperial  Duma. 

The  Manifesto  was  greeted  by  general  rejoicing  throughout 
Russia.  The  rejoicing  was  again  of  brief  duration.  For, 
Nicholas  II  granted  concessions  with  one  hand,  and  with  the 
other  he  let  loose  his  associates,  who  immediately  wreaked 
vengeance  upon  the  people  for  having  dared  to  undermine  their 
absolute  power.  The  day  after  the  appearance  of  the  Mani- 
festo saw  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  horrible  massacres  of 
Jews  and  of  "intelligentsia"  throughout  the  country.  In  Odessa 
alone,  there  was  a  toll  of  about  a  thousand  killed  and  many 
thousands  wounded,  in  a  massacre  that  lasted  four  days.  The 
i  horrors  perpetrated,  aside  from  death  and  wounds,  are  written 
/       in  the  memories  of  many  people,  even  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 

Trepov  was  then  Minister  of  the  Interior.  His  cruelties 
c.proved  distasteful  even  to  the  Tzar's  Premier,  and  finally  he 
Wwas  dismissed.  But  his  successor,  Durnovo,  an  old  reac- 
tionary,  was  not  of  any  milder  mettle.  The  Revolution  kept 
on  spreading  and  in  St.  Petersburg  the  delegates  from  the 
factories,  elected  by  the  workers,  had  organized  a  Council  of 
Workmen's  Delegates.  The  President  of  this  Council  was  a 
young  lawyer,  Khrustaliov-Nosar.  Other  cities  had  followed 
suit  and  organized  local  Councils  of  Workmen's  Delegates. 
Even  the  peasants  in  many  places  had  organized  their  Councils 
of  Peasants'  Delegates,  and  in  a  few  instances  the  soldiers  had 
banded  together  in  their  Councils  of  Soldiers'  Delegates. 


116  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

On  the  very  day  that  Trepov  had  let  loose  his  "Black  Hun- 
dreds"* to  spill  the  blood  of  the  Jews  and  "intelligentsia,"  who 
were  proclaimed  "enemies  of  the  Tzar,"  the  St.  Petersburg 
Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates  passed  a  resolution  that 
plainly  declared  their  intention  to  do  away  with  autocracy  for- 
ever. It  said  in  part :  "Pressed  in  the  iron  vise  of  the  general 
political  strike  of  the  Russian  proletariat,  the  Russian  Auto- 
cratic Government  has  granted  concessions.  .  .  But  the  Russian 
Revolutionary  Proletariat  cannot  lay  down  its  arms  until  the 
time  when  the  political  rights  of  the  Russian  people  are  estab- 
lished on  firm  foundations,  until  a  democratic  republic  is 
established,  the  best  method  for  the  advancement  of  the  strug- 
gle of  the  proletariat  for  Socialism." 

In  the  latter  part  of  October  a  mutiny  broke  out  among  the 
Kronstadt  sailors.  It  was  suppressed  and  the  leaders  were 
arrested.  They  were  handed  over  to  a  court-martial,  which 
sentenced  them  to  death.  During  this  same  time  a  strong 
movement  for  autonomy  appeared  in  Poland.  The  Govern- 
ment responded  by  declaring  martial  law  in  the  Polish 
Provinces. 

On  November  2,  in  protest  against  the  death  sentence  passed 
upon  the  Kronstadt  sailors,  the  St.  Petersburg  Council  of 
Workmen's  Delegates  declared  a  second  general  political 
strike,  with  the  demands:  "Down  with  the  death  sentence! 
Down  with  court-martials !  Down  with  martial  law  in  Po- 
land !"  Count  Witte  tried  to  win  over  the  Council  and  issued 
a  proclamation  to  the  workingmen,  appealing  to  them  in  a 
very  "benevolent"  tone : 

"Brothers-workmen !  Go  back  to  work,  cease  your  seditious 
activities,  have  pity  on  your  wives  and  children.  Do  not  listen 
to  evil  counsel.  The  Tzar  has  commanded  us  to  devote  special 
attention  to  the  labor  question.  .  .  .  Give  us  time  and  everything 


*The  "Black  Hundreds,"  in  general,  were  bands  made  up  of  the  scum 
of  the  people.  Released  criminals,  who  wished  to  rehabilitate  themselves 
with  the  police,  and  extremely  ignorant  persons,  who  were  taught  that 
the  "intelligentsia"  and  the  Jews  were  responsible  for  all  their  misery, 
were  organized  into  bands  by  police  agents,  for  these  massacres.  Under 
police  protection  they  pillaged,  ravaged  and  committed  murders  with  Im- 
punity. 


On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  117 

possible  will  be  done  for  you.  Heed  the  advice  of  a  man  dis- 
posed towards  you  and  wishing  you  well." 

One  group  of  electrical  workers,  after  a  discussion  of  the 
proclamation,  responded  laconically :  "Read  it  and — struck." 
The  Council  answered  the  proclamation,  point  by  point : 

"The  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates,  after  listening  to 
the  telegram  of  Count  Witte  to  his  'brothers-workmen',  first 
of  all  expresses  its  extreme  amazement  at  the  impertinence  of 
the  Tzar's  favorite  who  takes  the  liberty  of  calling  the  St. 
Petersburg  workingmen  his  'brothers.'  The  proletarians  are 
in  no  way  related  to  Count  Witte. 

"The  Council  declares : 

"1.  Count  Witte  calls  upon  us  to  pity  our  wives  and  children. 
The  Council  requests  all  workingmen  to  figure  out  how  many 
widows  and  orphans  have  been  ndded  to  their  ranks  since  the 
day  that  Witte  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Government. 

"2.  Count  Witte  points  out  the  benevolent  intention  of  the 
Tzar  towards  the  working  class.  The  Council  reminds  the 
St.  Petersburg  proletariat  about  the  Bloody  Sunday  of  Jan- 
uary 9. 

"3.  Count  Witte  asks  to  be  given  'time'  and  promises  to  do 
'everything  possible'  for  the  workers.  The  Council  knows 
that  Witte  has  already  found  time  for  delivering  Poland  into 
the  hands  of  martial  executioners,  and  the  Council  does  not 
doubt  that  Witte  will  do  'everything  possible'  to  strangle  the 
revolutionary  proletariat. 

"4.  Count  Witte  calls  himself  a  man  disposed  towards  us  and 
wishing  us  well.  The  Council  declares  that  the  working  class 
is  in  no  need  of  good  will  on  the  part  of  the  Tzar's  favorite. 
It  demands  a  popular  government,  based  on  universal,  equal, 
direct  and  secret  franchise." 

The  Government  temporized  by  further  palliative  conces- 
sions. The  redemption  dues  of  the  peasants  were  cut  in 
half  for  1906  and  were  to  be  completely  abolished  after 
January,  1907.  Finland  was  granted  some  of  the  liberties  of 
which  she  had  been  deprived.  A  partial  amnesty  for  political 
prisoners  was  declared.  But  the  agrarian  disorders  continued. 
The  Siberian  troops  revolted.     In  Southern  Russia  the  flag  of 


118  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Revolution  was  raised  on  a  number  of  battleships  by  Lieutenant 
Schmidt,  and  there  was  an  encounter  with  the  fleet.  There 
were  constant  mutinies  in  the  army  and  navy.  The  soldiers  in 
many  parts  of  Russia  rose  in  rebellion. 

The  story  of  the  revolutionary  uprising  under  the  leadership 
of  Lieutenant  Schmidt  remains  one  of  the  most  romantic 
episodes  in  the  history  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in 
Russia.  The  uprising  was  suppressed,  and  Lieutenant  Schmidt 
was  sentenced  to  death.  His  last  days  were  recently  de- 
scribed Dv  a  private,  F.  I.  Pradidenko,  of  the  fort  artillery 
of  Ochakov,  in  an  interview  that  appeared  in  a  daily  published 
in  Nikolaev. 

"I  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  execution  of  Lieutenant  Peter 
Petrovich  Schmidt  and  his  associates,"  said  F.  I.  Pradidenko. 
"At  that  time  I  was  serving  in  the  fort  artillery  in  the  city  of 
Ochakov,  in  the  fifth  company,  which  was  on  duty  at  the 
naval  battery. 

"On  November  20,  1905,  we  were  ordered  to  immediately 
prepare  the  casemate  on  naval  battery  No.  41.  On  the  same 
date,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  gunboat  'Donetz' 
came  and  anchored  close  to  the  battery.  When  the  'Donetz' 
was  coming  we  were  ordered  to  take  our  places  at  the  guns, 
from  where  we  could  clearly  see  that  a  boat  left  the  'Donetz' 
and  stopped  at  the  pier  of  the  naval  battery.  I  went  to  the 
landing  place  and  what  did  I  see? — An  armed  detachment 
landed,  in  charge  of  two  officers.  In  the  middle  of  this  detach- 
ment a  man  was  carried,  followed  by  a  boy  about  15  years  old. 
To  my  question  as  to  who  he  was,  the  sailors  replied  that 
he  was  Lieutenant  Schmidt,  and  the  boy  following  him,  his 
son.  In  reply  to  my  inquiry  why  he  was  carried,  I  was  told 
that  his  leg  was  broken.  Subsequently  I  myself  asked  Lieu- 
tenant Schmidt  about  it,  and  this  is  what  he  said :  'When  I 
threw  myself  from  the  cruiser  Ochakov,  into  the  water,  I  was 
overtaken  by  a  boat  containing  an  officer  and  four  sailors ; 
the  officer  hit  me  with  his  sword  and  cut  my  leg.' 

"Schmidt  was  brought  into  casemate  No.  41,  where  two  cots 
and  a  little  table  were  prepared.  Schmidt  and  his  son  were 
left  there,  the  casemate  was  locked,  and  I  was  put  on  guard. 


LIEUTENANT  PETER  P.  SCHMIDT 

The  leader  of  the  uprising  in  the  Russian  Fleet  at  the 
end  of  1905.     Executed  on  March  6th.  1900. 


120  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"After  the  officers  had  left,  I  said  to  him :  'Mr.  Schmidt, 
why  are  you  imprisoned?'  He  replied:  'Understanding-  the 
falseness  on  the  part  of  the  Tzar  and  the  Government  and 
their  oppressive  and  cruel  treatment  of  the  people,  and  being- 
unable  to  stand  any  longer  this  injustice  and  cruelty  to  the 
people,  I  rebelled  against  the  Tzar's  Government.  For  this 
I  am  imprisoned.' 

"Lieutenant  Schmidt  remained  at  the  battery  from  Novem- 
ber 20,  1905,  until  February  5,  1906.  His  son,  having  stayed 
with  him  not  over  a  month,  was  released.  I  learned  of  the 
son's  release  when  I  was  put  on  guard  over  him  a  second  time. 

"On  the  same  day,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Lieutenant 
Schmidt  said  to  me :  'Comrade,  I  leave  you  my  words  written 
on  the  floor  with  the  candle.  Hurry  and  read  them,  because 
after  my  departure  the  gendarmes  will  erase  them  and  will 
not  let  you  read  them.  However,  let  them  erase.  These  are 
only  words,  but  they  will  never  succeed  in  erasing  the  memory 
of  my  deed !' 

"I  read  the  following:  'The  time  will  come  when  the  whole 
people  will  awaken.' 

"On  February  5,  1906,  a  transport-boat,  with  gendarmes, 
came  from  Ochakov  to  the  naval  battery  and  Schmidt  was 
taken  to  the  city  of  Ochakov,  where  he  was  put  into  the  guard- 
house of  the  Fortress. 

"On  the  same  day  I  also  went  to  Ochakov,  where  I  saw  the 
steamer  which  came  fom  Sebastopol.  As  I  came  along,  mem- 
bers of  the  Naval  Court  were  leaving  the  steamer;  after  them, 
thirty-nine  sailors  were  taken  off,  under  guard.  Their  cases 
were  considered  by  the  Court  at  the  same  time  as  that  of 
Lieutenant  Schmidt. 

"Of  these  thirty-nine  sailors,  some  were  acquitted,  some 
sentenced  to  hard  labor  for  life,  and  three, — Antonenko,  Glad- 
kov  and  Chasnikov, — to  death  by  shooting,  like  Lieutenant 
Schmidt.  At  the  end  of  the  Court's  sitting,  Lieutenant  Schmidt 
and  his  associates  were  put  on  a  military  transport,  which  was 
standing  at  the  naval  battery. 

"In  the  middle  of  the  night  of  March  6,  1906,  I  was  ordered 
to  dress  and  go  with  the  drummers  to  Berezan  Island.     Upon 


On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  121 

my  arrival  on  the  Island,  I  saw  there  the  Brest  infantry  regi- 
ment, armed,  and,  at  a  distance,  forty  sailors,  also  armed.  At 
dawn  Lieutenant  Schmidt  and  his  three  associates  were 
brought  to  the  Island.  They  were  preceded  by  a  priest.  When 
they  came  to  the  place  of  execution,  the  Court's  decision 
was  read  to  them,  after  which  the  priest  gave  them  the  cross, 
which  they  kissed. 

"Then  they  took  off  their  outer  garments  and  took  their 
assigned  places,  each  at  a  post.  Lieutenant  Schmidt,  having 
taken  off  his  outer  garments,  called  a  soldier  and  gave  him  his 
cap,  coat  and  silver  watch,  and  then  placed  himself  at  the  post. 

"Raising  his  hands,  Schmidt  said :  'This  is  the  last  time  I 
see  the  bright  world  and  my  associates.  I  tell  you  truthfully 
that  I  did  not  shoot  from  the  cruiser  Ochakov  and  that  I  did 
not  permit  any  shooting.' 

"His  companions,  standing  at  their  posts,  repeated  the  same. 

"Lieutenant  Schmidt's  companions,  Antonenko  and  Glad- 
kov,  realizing  that  it  was  the  end,  became  hysterical ;  immedi- 
ately two  sailors  ran  to  them  and  tied  them  to  the  posts. 

"Then  the  signal  was  given  to  shoot.  A  discharge  was 
heard.  .  .  .  Forty  bullets  were  fired  into  them.  Ten  sailors  sent 
four  bullets  each.  Lieutenant  Schmidt  and  Chasnikov  fell 
after  the  first  volley.  Schmidt  fell  on  the  right  side,  Chasnikov 
on  the  left.  After  the  fourth  volley  Antonenko  was  still  alive. 
The  regiment  doctor  went  over  to  him,  took  out  a  revolver 
and  sent  two  shots  into  his  head,  ending  Antonenko's  life. 

"When  all  were  dead,  the  sailors  ran  over  and  began  to 
put  the  bodies  into  coffins.  There  was  a  separate  coffin  for 
each,  but  one  grave  was  dug  out  for  all.  The  coffins  containing 
the  bodies  of  the  champions  of  freedom  were  passed  to  me  and 
I  put  them  into  the  grave.  I  pointed  out  the  place  and  they 
were  dug  up  on  April  15,  1917." 


HOWEVER,  the  greater  part  of  the  army  remained 
faithful  to  the  Tzar,  and  the  revolutionary  forces 
seemed  to  be  losing  their  hold.  In  November  there 
was  a  third  Congress  of  Zemstvos  held  in  Moscow.  The 
moderate    liberals,    frightened   at   the    excesses   of    the    Revo- 


122  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

lution,  organized  in  a  separate  party,  under  the  name  of 
Octobrists.  They  meant  to  support  the  Government  in 
carrying  out  its  policy  according  to  the  Manifesto  of  October 
17.  The  leader  of  the  new  party  was  A.  I.  Guchkov*.  The 
partv  differed  from  the  Constitutional-Democrats  not  only  in 
its  tactics  but  also  in  its  program,  being  opposed  to  autonomy 
for  Poland  and  to  the  principle  of  responsibility  of  the  Cabinet 
to  the  Duma. 

Public  sympathy  for  the  Revolution  had  weakened  because 
of  its  excesses.  Unity  among  the  revolutionists  themselves 
was  now  lacking.  The  strike  was  no  longer  a  novelty.  The 
second  political  strike  proved  a  failure. 

The  Tzar's  Government,  noting  the  weakening  in  the  forces 
of  the  Revolution,  felt  its  courage  return.  To  make  sure 
that  the  strength  of  the  revolutionaries  was  ebbing,  it  pro- 
ceeded cautiously  at  first.  Khrustaliov-Nosar,  the  President 
of  the  St.  Petersburg  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates,  was 
arrested.  The  Council  was  forced  to  show  its  weakness.  In- 
stead of  raising  the  expected  revolutionary  storm,  it  was 
merely  able  to  draw  up  a  strong  resolution  cf  protest,  and  to 
elect  a  new  president,  Leon  Trotzkyt.  The  Government  forces 
began  to  tread  more  firmly.  In  Moscow  they  arrested  the 
Central  Committee  of  the  Peasants'  Union.  They  proclaimed 
martial  law  in  St.  Petersburg.  Public  meetings  were  again  pro- 
hibited.   The  strikers  again  were  to  be  severely  punished. 

Provoked  by  the  new  turn  in  events,  the  Council  of  Work- 
men's Delegates,  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic Party,  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Peasants'  Union 
and  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolu- 
tionists, on  December  2,  united  in  a  Manifesto  addressed  to 
the  people.  This  Manifesto  pointed  out  the  main  crimes  of  the 
Tzar's  Government  against  the  people  and  declared  that  the 
fall  of  the  autocracy  was  the  only  way  out  of  the  abyss.  To 
overthrow  the  autocratic  order  it  was  deemed  necessary  to 
take  away  its  financial  power.     The  Tzar's  Government,  be- 


•  Later  Secretary  of  War  in  the  Provisional  Government. 
tLater  on©  of  the   leaders  of  the  Bolsheviki. 


On  the  Crest  of  the  Revolution  of  1905  123 

coming  bankrupt,  would  inevitably  fall.  Theiefore,  the  Mani- 
festo called  upon  the  people : 

"To  refuse  payment  of  redemption  installments  and  all 
other  fiscal  payments. 

"To  demand  that  all  payments  of  wages  or  salaries  be  in 
gold  and  that  amounts  less  than  five  roubles  be  paid  in  hard 
coin,  full  weight. 

"To  withdraw  the  deposits  from  the  Savings  Banks  and 
from  the  State  Bank,  demanding  all  payments  in  gold.'' 

The  St.  Petersburg  newspapers  printed  this  Manifesto.  They 
were  suspended.  Nevertheless,  the  Manifesto  appeared  in  the 
provincial  press.  The  people  heeded  the  call  and  withdrew 
many  tens  of  millions  of  rubles  from  the  Savings  Banks.  The 
Government  arrested  and  imprisoned  the  entire  Council  of 
Workmen's  Delegates.  The  Central  Strike  Committee  re- 
sponded by  calling  another  general  strike. 

Everyone  felt  the  coming  of  s  decisive  battle.  Everything 
depended  on  the  army.  Whichever  side  the  army  stood  by, 
was  sure  to  win.  It  seemed  as  if  the  army  would  naturally 
fall  in  with  the  brothers  and  fathers,  in  the  ranks  of  the 
revolutionists. 

But  this  general  strike,  the  third  in  barely  two  months, 
drew  only  a  disheartened  response.  The  proletariat's  fighting 
strength  was  gone.  Not  all  the  factories  responded,  and  only 
in  a  few  places  was  the  attempt  made  to  overthrow  the  local 
authorities.  And  unfortunately,  the  army,  accustomed  to  ages 
of  submission  and  blind  obedience,  followed  their  officers  like 
cattle,  and  slaughtered  their  OAvn  fathers  and  brothers. 


AFTER  A  PUNITIVE   EXPEDITION 

CHAPTER  XI 
Zinaida   Konopliannikova  and   Maria   Spiridonova 

IN  Moscow,  the  Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates,  more  de- 
termined than  the  revolutionists  in  other  cities,  waged 
almost  a  two  weeks'  battle  against  the  combined  forces  of 
the  infantry,  cavalry  and  artillery  of  the  Tzar's  Government. 
Machine  guns  and  magazine  rifles  were  played  against  the  re- 
volvers of  the  revolutionary  fighting  groups,  and  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  the  machine  guns  and  magazine  rifles 
proved  the  stronger.  The  Government  wreaked  its  vengeance 
with  frightful  cruelty.  The  population  of  the  city  received 
the  treatment  of  a  conquered  enemy.  Houses  and  factories 
were  destroyed.  Prisoners  were  shot  down  in  batches,  with- 
out any  form  of  trial.  Then  the  Government  sent  the  Semion- 
ovsky  Guards  on  a  punitive  expedition,  through  the  Moscow 
legion,  to  punish  all  suspects.  The  order  was:  "Take  no 
prisoners ;  act  without  mercy."  And  the  Semionovsky  Guards 
obeyed  this  order  to  the  letter.  They  slaughtered  and  they 
ravaged.  The  Government  was  avenged  for  all  the  uneasy 
days  it  had  had. 


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126  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

As  this  expedition  had  proven  so  successful,  punitive  ex- 
peditions became  the  order  of  the  day.  The  unarmed  peasants 
and  the  workers  all  over  Russia,  especially  in  the  provinces 
known  to  be  revolutionary,  were  cannonaded,  and  the  village^ 
burned  down.  The  population  was  treated  to  atrocities  such 
as  only  the  darkest  pages  of  the  history  of  this  war  have  shown. 
By  such  methods  was  Russia  pacified.  .  .  . 

At  the  head  of  the  Semionovsky  Guards,  which  "pacified" 
revolutionary  Moscow,  was  the  notorious,  since  then,  General 
Mien.  The  atrocities  committed  under  his  leadership  did  not 
remain  unavenged.  A  young  woman,  Zinaida  Vassilievna 
Konopliannikova,  a  member  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of 
the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  shot  General  Mien,  in 
the  summer  of  1906. 

The  story  of  this  brave  woman  who  died  for  her  country, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  is  the  best  illustration  both  of  the 
lofty  idealism  and  heroism  of  Russia's  youth,  dying  for  liberty, 
and  of  the  atrocities  of  the  autocracy  which  oppressed  the 
Russian  people  for  centuries. 

Zinaida  Konopliannikova  was  a  native  of  St.  Petersburg. 
She  was  born  in  1879  and  received  her  early  training  in  an 
f  lementary  school,  after  which  she  entered  a  vocational  school. 
After  having  brilliantly  completed  the  six-year  course,  she 
entered  a  teachers'  training  school  in  St.  Petersburg,  from 
which  she  graduated  three  years  later.  Then  she  started  her 
career  as  a  teacher  in  the  town  of  Cherny,  in  the  Province  of 
I  ifland.  It  seemed  to  her,  however,  that  her  work  was  too 
closely  connected  with  the  russification  of  the  natives,  who 
hated  the  process.  She  decided  to  leave  the  place  and  was 
transferred  to  the  district  of  Peterhoff. 

Here  she  first  started  her  work  for  the  peasants,  arranging 
theatrical  performances,  lectures  and  so  on.  In  1903 
Konopliannikova  went  to  St.  Petersburg  for  propaganda 
work  among  the  workingmen.  In  April  of  the  same 
year  she  was  arrested,  with  a  group  of  people  charged 
with  the  same  offense.  She  was  first  kept  in  a  cell  in  the 
police  station,  but  because  of  her  refusal  to  give  any  informa- 


Zinaida  Konopliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova  127 

tion,  she  was  transferred  to  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and 
Paul.  It  was  only  due  to  her  illness  that  she  was  again 
transferred  to  the  cell  in  the  police  station,  where  she  wa> 
kept  until  April,  1904.  Finally  she  was  released,  but 
was  again  arrested  and  imprisoned  for  nine  months.  When 
her  term  expired,  she  went  abroad,  and  lived  mostly  in  Switzer- 
land. After  having  taken  a  rest  and  recovered  her  health, 
which  was  greatly  shattered  by  her  stay  in  prison,  she  went 
back  to  Russia,  where  she  joined  the  fighting  ranks  of  the 
Socialist  Party. 

Arrested  at  the  railroad  station,  after  shooting  General 
Mien,  who  had  led  the  punitive  expedition  against  the  revolu- 
tionists in  the  Moscow  region,  Konopliannikova  refused 
to  give  her  name.  A  few  days  later  she  was  recognized  by 
a  gendarme,  Ostafieft',  who  remembered  having  investigated 
her  case  at  the  time  she  was  being  tried  for  belonging  to  the 
Peasants'  Union.  She  was  charged  with  two  crimes :  the 
shooting  of  General  Mien  and  membership  in  the  Fighting 
Organization  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists.  Kono- 
pliannikova declared  that  she  did  not  regret  her  acts.  The 
trial  took  place  on  the  26th  of  August  and  throughout  the 
proceedings  she  remained  calm  and  courageous. 

After  the  Prosecuting  Attorney  and  the  Attorney  for  the 
Defense  had  made  their  speeches,  the  contents  of  which  are 
unknown,  Konopliannikova  herself  made  the  following  speech  : 
"I,  a  member  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  and 
at  the  present  time  a  member  of  the  Fighting  Organization  of 
the  Northern  Section  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists, 
have  shot  Mien.  These  are  the  reasons  that  forced  me  to  com- 
mit this  act :  I  think  all  of  you  remember  the  days  in  the  month 
of  December  last,  when  General  Mien  and  Rieman  treated 
Moscow  like  a  conquered  enemy's  territory.  I  shall  not  speak- 
much  about  it.  The  newspapers  and  magazines  have  devoted 
much  space  to  those  days,  and  there  are  special  books  already 
that  tell  the  whole  story.  Hundreds  of  people  were  killed  in 
Moscow.  Why,  I  ask,  were  those  people  in  Moscow  killed  ? 
Was  it  because  the  ignorant  and  poor  workers,  fooled  by  the 


128  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

provocateur  manifesto  of  Nicholas  II  and  by  the  provocateur 
policy  of  his  Government,  raised  the  banner  of  revolt  against 
their  oppressors  under  whose  yoke  they  have  slaved  for  cen- 
turies? I  killed  Mien  as  the  murderer  of  the  fighters  for  free- 
dom, as  the  murderer  of  the  innocent  people  whose  blood  has 
been  shed  on  the  streets  of  Moscow. 

"In  time  of  peace  Mien  was  busy  training  the  soldiers.  He 
tried  to  get  in  closer  touch  with  the  soldiers,  in  order  to 
directly  exert  his  influence  over  them  and  cultivate  in  them 
slavish  obedience  and  loyalty  to  the  criminal  Government. 
In  this  fashion  was  he  training  them  as  future  murderers  of 
their  brothers  and  their  own  fathers.  I  shot  Mien  as  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Semionovsky  Regiment,  who  inculcated  in  the 
peasant-soldiers  the  spirit  of  active  hostility  toward  the  move- 
ment of  the  masses  for  their  emancipation. 

"Nicholas  II,  like  Ivan  the  Terrible,  has  surrounded  him- 
self with  a  staff  of  cruel  body-guards.  People  like  Mien  of 
Moscow,  or  the  notorious  Orlov  of  the  Baltic  region,  or 
Trepov,  the  organizer  of  massacres,  surround  his  throne.  The 
hands  of  every  one  of  them  are  stained  with  the  blood  of  the 
people.  In  killing  one  of  Nicholas'  body-guards  I  want  to 
remind  him  that  just  as  the  pillars  supporting  his  throne  are 
being  hewed  down,  so  may  in  time  the  throne  itself  topple 
over. 

I    "During  the  cross-examination  I  was  asked :  'Who  gave  you 
the  right  to  kill?'     As  a  member  of  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
■  Revolutionists  I  will  give  the  same  answer  that  my  comrades 
(/have  given  before  me.    The  party  has  decided  to  respond  to 
';  the     bloody     terror     practiced     by     the     Government,     with 
|  red    terror.      The    terror    to    which    the    party    resorts    has 
been  forced  upon  us  by  the  Government.     The  terror  prac- 
ticed by  the  party  has  been  called  into  existence  through  the 
fault  of  the  Government.    And  as  one  who  comes  from  the  ranks 
of  the  people, — I  am  of  common  descent :  my  father  is  a  soldier, 
my  mother  is  a  peasant  woman, — I  ask  you  in  the  name  of 
the  people :   'Who  gave  you  the  right  to  keep  us  for  centuries 
in  ignorance  and  poverty,  in  prisons  and  in  exile,  who  gave 
you  the  right  to  send  us  to  the  gallows,  and  to  shoot,  and 


Zinaida  Konopliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova  129 

kill  us  by  the  hundreds?  Who  gave  you  that  right?'  You 
yourselves  took  it  by  virtue  of  your  might,  you  have  legalized 
this  right  by  laws  of  your  own  making,  and  the  clergymen 
have  sanctioned  this  right  for  you.  But  now  a  new 
right  is  coming  into  being,  a  right  which  is  by  far  more 
humane  than  your  heartless  law.  You  have  declared  a  relent- 
less war  against  this  right  which  is  bound  to  prevail  in  the 
future.  You  know  well  that  with  the  extinction  of  your  in- 
human law,  you,  who  feed  upon  it  as  the  jackals  feed  on  car- 
casses, will  also  perish.  And  we  who  come  from  the  people, 
we,  fighters  for  the  people's  liberty,  have  the  courage  and  the 
right  to  fight  you,  the  representatives  of  autocratic  and 
bureaucratic  lawlessness,  we  feel  in  us  the  physical  and  the 
moral  strength  to  fight  for  our  rights  with  armed  force. 

"I  shall  tell  briefly  the  story  of  my  life.  As  soon  as  I  com- 
pleted the  course  of  study  in  the  teachers'  training  school. 
I  was  sent  to  teach  in  one  of  the  remote  corners  of  the  Province 
of  Lifland,  in  one  of  the  schools  maintained  by  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Government  was  occupied,  as  it  still  is,  with  the 
russification  of  the  Baltic  Provinces,  and  for  this  purpose 
schools  were  built  and  Russian  men  and  women  were  sent 
to  teach  the  natives.  The  locality  where  I  taught  was  very 
poor.  On  three  sides  it  bordered  upon  forests  and  on  the 
fourth  side  was  Lake  Paypus.  The  landscape  was  dreary, 
with  nothing  but  fir  and  aspen  trees.  The  natives  were  ex- 
ceedingly poor.  They  had  no  land.  Alexander  II,  if  I  remem- 
ber aright,  freed  them  without  giving  them  any  land.  All  the 
land  remained  in  the  hands  of  their  barons  and  in  the  hands 
of  the  Government.  They  lived  on  what  the  lake  yielded, 
that  is  their  only  occupation  was  fishing.  As  one  who  had  grown 
up  in  poverty,  I  was  not  startled  by  their  poverty,  I  only 
marvelled  how  people  could  live  under  such  conditions  with- 
out fighting  for  a  better  future  ;  how  one  could  live  without  a 
single  ray  of  light  or  hope  on  the  dark  horizon !  But  outside 
of  the  school  I  could  not  work  as  I  did  not  know  the  native 
tongue.  In  school  I  suffered  morally  because  I  had  to  con- 
duct the  studies  in  Russian.  It  was  painful  to  see  a  little 
pupil  look  at  me  so  helplessly  and  pitifully  when  I  demanded 


130  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

that  he  speak  only  Russian.  'Why  can't  I  speak  my  own 
language?'  was  the  question  I  could  read  in  his  sad  eyes. 
It  was  painful  to  hear  17 — 18-year-old  boys,  in  the  higher 
grades,  boys  who  did  not  know  their  own  history  abound- 
ing in  facts  and  events,  relate  for  me  the  history  of  the 
family  feuds  among  the  descendants  of  Oleg  and  Rurik.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  any  people  who  think  it  necessary 
and  proper  to  study  the  language  and  history  of  the 
neighbors  with  whom  they  are  in  close  touch,  should  not  do 
so.  But  the  russification  of  the  Baltic  Provinces  has  tended 
to  retard  the  national  and  cultural  development  of  the  Prov- 
inces. After  working  in  Lifland  for  a  year,  I  went  to  teach 
Russian  children  in  the  school  supported  by  the  Zemstvos,  in 
the  district  of  Peterhoff,  in  the  Province  of  Petersburg.  Con- 
ditions here  were  such  :  in  front  of  the  school  lived  a  gendarme, 
behind  the  school  lived  a  police  official,  on  the  mountain  near- 
by lived  a  priest,  next  to  him  a  clergyman,  and  all  of  them 
were  constantly  reporting  me  to  my  superiors.  If  I  arranged 
popular  readings  or  discussions  of  the  most  innocent  nature, 
the  clergyman  reported  to  the  inspector  that  'the  school 
teacher  was  engaged  in  discussions  and  readings  which  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  regular  school  work,'  the  priest  kept 
busy  writing  to  his  superiors  that  the  teacher  was  founding 
sects,  spreading  Tolstoy's  doctrines,  and  demoralizing  the 
younger  generation.  If  I  arranged  theatrical  performances, 
the  police  official  and  gendarme  would  immediately  get  busy. 
As  a  consequence,  the  inspector,  the  school  board  and  the 
Governor  were  constantly  calling  on  me  for  explanations.  Two 
and  a  half  years  I  taught  in  that  village,  until  the  school  board 
finally  dismissed  me.  I  gave  up  my  profession  without  regret. 
As  a  result  of  my  experiences,  I  have  come  to  the  following 
conclusions :  I  cannot  share  with  the  people  even  that  meager 
knowledge  which  I  myself  possess,  I  cannot  open  the  eyes  of 
the  people  to  the  conditions  in  which  they  exist,  I  cannot 
point  out  to  them  the  real  causes  of  their  misery.  I  saw  that 
under  such  circumstances  one  could  not  even  dream  about  the 
harmonious  development  of  the  spirit  and  intellect  of  the 
individual.   I  saw  the  necessity  for  first  creating  the  conditions 


Zinaida  Kono pliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova  131 

under  which  the  development  of  what  is  best  in  human  na- 
ture will  be  possible.  I  saw  the  prime  necessity  for  the  strug- 
gle with  the  autG"ratic  and  despotic  Government.  I  became 
a  revolutionist. 

"Soon  after  \  was  dismissed,  they  arrested  me.  I  spent  a 
year  in  jail  and  in  the  fortress.  They  released  me.  and  two 
weeks  later  they  arrested  me  again.  This  time  they  kept  me 
eight  months.  After  I  was  freed  for  the  second  time,  I  fled 
abroad.  Abroad,  as  well  as  after  my  return  to  Russia,  1 
worked  as  a  member  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  jail  and  the  persecutions  of  the 
Government,  the  revolutionary  spirit  was  definitely  strength- 
ened in  me.  I  saw  clearly  that  the  Tzar,  if  not  a  tyrant  and 
a  despot,  is  a  tool  for  the  enslaving  of  the  masses.  To  govern, 
from  the  autocracy's  point  of  view,  means  to  rob,  burn  and 
kill.  The  history  of  the  Russian  people  is  written  in  letters  of 
blood.  "»- — 

"'I  saw  clearly  that  the  autocratic  and  bureaucratic  super- 
structure rests  on  the  armed  force  of  the  Government,  and  is 
able  to  maintain  itself  only  through  the  constant  practice 
of  bloody  terror,  on  the  part  of  those  steering  our  ship  of 
S1ate.  And  life  itself  has  taught  me  as  follows:  you  cannot 
create  anything  new  without  first  destroying  the  old ;  if  you 
cannot  pierce  an  idea  writh  a  bayonet,  neither  can  you  resist 
the  power  of  the  bayonet  with  ideas  only.  I  became  a  terror- 
ist. 

"The  autocratic  and  bureaucratic  regime  is  approaching  its 
end.  Already  the  defeat  of  the  Government  during  the  sense- 
less Japanese  War  has  shown  that  it  is  nearing  its  downfall. 
The  strike  which  took  place  in  October  frightened  the  Gov- 
ernment. To  pacify  the  country,  the  Government  declared 
that  it  would  give  the  country  liberty.  At  the  same  time, 
while  it  was  promising  the  people  freedom,  the  Government 
was  sending  punitive  expeditions  to  the  villages  and  organiz- 
ing bloody  massacres  in  the  cities.  This  strange  period  of 
'liberty'  did  not  last  more  than  a  month.  Again  leaden  clouds 
of  repressions  appeared  on  the  horizon.  The  people  were  not 
appeased.    The  Government  decided  to  create  the  Duma  as  a 


132  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

support  for  the  rotting  foundations.  Neither  the  organization 
of  the  Black  Hundreds  nor  any  other  attempts  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  call  a  conservative  monarchical  Duma  were  of  any 
avail.  The  Duma  proved  a  liberal  one.  At  one  time  the  Gov- 
ernment suffered  the  just  attacks  of  the  Duma, — as  it  saw  no 
serious  harm  in  being  called  names, — but  its  patience  was  ex- 
hausted when  the  members  of  the  Duma  decided  to  issue  a 
manifesto  to  the  masses  confirming  the  confiscation  of  pri- 
vately owned  land.  The  owners  began  to  talk,  the  rulers 
became  excited,  and  the  Duma  was  disbanded.  Now  we  are 
again  living  through  a  period  of  repressions.  But  all  these 
measures  of  the  Government  are  futile.  No  repressions,  no 
arrests,  no  jails,  no  exile,  no  gallows,  no  hard-labor,  no  puni- 
tive expeditions,  no  massacre  can  check  the  movement  of  the 
masses  who  are  rising! 

"You  will  sentence  me  to  death.  But  wherever  I  die, — 
on  the  scaffold,  in  exile,  or  elsewhere, — I  will  die  with  one 
thought :  'Forgive  me,  my  people !  There  was  so  little  I 
could  give  you — only  my  life.'  And  I  shall  die  with  the  firm 
faith  that  the  day  will  come,  when,  as  the  poet  has  it, 

'The  throne  will  topple  over, 
And  the  Sun  of  Liberty  will  rise 

Above  the  vast  plains  of  Russia.'  " 


On  the  twenty-sixth  of  August  sentence  was  pronounced — 
death.  .  .  . 

Konopliannikova  was  given  the  right  to  appeal  from 
this  decision  within  two  days.  She  smiled  as  she  listened  to 
the  sentence,  prepared  in  advance,  and  declined  the  privilege 
of  appeal  to  any  other  Court. 

A  day  after  the  trial  Konopliannikova  saw  her  sister,  who 
came  to  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul.  Their  conversa- 
tion lasted  fifteen  minutes.  The  sister  was  not  allowed  to 
enter  the  cell,  and  prison  bars  separated  the  two  sisters  during 
their  last  meeting. 


Zinaida  Konopliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova  133 

The  "Novoye  Vremia"*  announced  on  Sunday,  August  28, 
that  the  sentence  had  been  submitted  for  approval  to  Grand 
Duke  Nicholai  Nicholaevitch,  who  was  then  Military  Com- 
mander of  St.  Petersburg.!  On  Monday  the  same  paper  an- 
nounced that  the  sentence  had  been  approved  and  that  orders 
had  been  given  to  execute  it. 

Konopliannikova  was  executed  in  the  Fortress  of  Schlussel- 
burg.  She  went  to  her  death  as  one  would  go  to  a  holiday 
festivity.  She  knew  that  her  death  would  mean  another  defeat 
for  her  enemies  and  a  new  victory  for  the  fighters  for  freedom. 

Before  the  execution  the  Prosecutor  asked  Konopliannikova 
whether  she  would  not  leave  a  written  message  to  her 
relatives  or  friends.  He  gave  her  his  word  of  honor  that  all  she 
would  ask  would  be  done  and  that  it  would  remain  a  secret,  but 
she  declined  the  favor.  Then  he  suggested  that  she  give  him  a 
verbal  message,  and  he  promised  to  fulfill  her  wish  and  to 
treat  it  as  strictly  confidential.  She  thought  for  a  while,  and 
again  refused. 

She  mounted  the  scaffold  in  absolute  calm.  She  was 
asked  to  take  off  her  collar.  She  began  to  remove  the  collar 
button,  but  for  some  reason  she  could  not  manage  to  do  it.  So 
she  tore  the  collar  open  and  threw  it  on  the  ground.  This 
was  the  only  moment  when  she  showed  her  emotion,  during 
the  preparations  for  the  execution. 

The  executioner  approached  her  and  was  about  to  seize  her 
to  lead  her  over  to  the  scaffold.  She  asked  not  to  be  touched 
and  only  to  be  shown  how  to  tighten  the  loop.  Then  she  put 
it  on  herself,  very  calmly,  tightened  it,  and  herself  threw  the 
bench  from  under  her  feet. 

The  official  who  was  reading  the  sentence  could  not 
bear  the  sight,  his  voice  gave  way  and  his  hands  began  to 
tremble.  His  neighbor  snatched  the  paper  from  him  and  hur- 
riedly  read   it   through. 


*A  St.  Petersburg  daily  which,  under  the  old  regime,  was  considered 
semi-official. 

fLater,  under  the  old  regime.  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian 
Armies. 


134  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

One  of  the  soldiers  fainted  at  the  sight  of  a  woman  being 
hanged.  The  strain  was  evidently  too  great  even  for  a  soldier's 
nerves. 


THE  epoch  of  the  bloody  punitive  expeditions  against 
the  revolutionists,  in  the  end  of  1905  and  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1906,  is  closely  connected  with  the  name  of  an- 
other Russian  woman-revolutionist,  Maria  Spiridonova,  who 
at  present,  after  her  return  from  ten  years  of  hard-labor 
imprisonment  in  Siberia,  plays  an  important  role  in  Russia's 
political  life,  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  left  wing  of  the  Party 
of  Socialists-Revolutionists.* 

Maria  Spiridonova,  a  member  of  the  Fighting  Organization 
of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  shot  the  reactionary 
Governor  of  the  Province  of  Tambov,  Lujenovsky.  Here,  is 
how  she  herself  describes  the  act  and  her  arrest,  which  fol- 
lowed immediately : 

"I  entered  the  railroad-car  in  which  Lujenovsky  was  seated, 
and  from  a  distance  of  12  to  13  feet  I  fired  at  him.  ...  I 
covered  my  face  with  my  hands,  but  with  the  butt-ends  of 
'heir  rifles  they  beat  my  hands  away  from  my  face.  Then  a 
Cossack  officer,  snatching  hold  of  my  braids,  lifted  me  up  by 
them,  and  with  all  his  might  threw  me  on  the  platform.  .  .  . 
Then  some  one  caught  hold  of  my  foot  and  dragged  me  down 
the  stairs,  my  head  banging  against  each  stair.  I  was  hauled 
into  a  cab  by  my  braids.  .  .  . 

"With  his  foot,  the  Cossack  officer,  Zhdanov,  kicked  me  into 
the  corner  of  the  cell,  where  another  Cossack  officer,  waiting 
for  me,  would  trample  me  with  his  feet,  and  hurl  ma  back 
to  Zhdanov,  who  jumped  on  my  neck.  .  .  .  Then  they  stripped 
off  my  clothes,  whipped  me  with  knouts,  swearing  all  the 
time,  and  constantly  saying:  'Now,  Miss,  make  a  fiery  speech!' 
With  one  of  my  eyes  I  could  not  see  anything  and  the  right 
side  of  my  face  was  terribly  mauled.  They  pinched  that  cheek 
and  asked  maliciously:  'Does  it  hurt,  my  dear?    Say.  tell  us. 


♦Recently  Spiridonova  issued  a  manifesto  against  the  ratification  of  the 
German  "peace,"  declaring-  that  this  kind  of  peace  will  deprive  the  peasants 
of  their  liberty  and  land. 


Zinaida  Konopliannikova  and  Maria  Spiridonova  135 

who  are  your  comrades?'  .  .  .  They  tore  my  hair  out  one  by 
one,  meanwhile  asking:  'Who  are  the  other  revolutionaries?' 
They  extinguished  lighted  cigarettes  against  my  body  and 
shouted  at  me  :  'Now  cry  out,  you !' 

"I  testified  as  follows  :  'Yes,  I  deliberately  set  out  to  kill 
Lujenovsky,  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  Tambov 
Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists.  He  was 
tried  because  he  has  brutally  flogged  and  tortured  the  peasants 
during  the  agrarian  and  political  disturbances,  and  because  of 
his  murderous  adventures  in  the  city  of  Borisogliebsk  while 
he  was  Chief  of  the  Secret  Service  Police;  also  for  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Black"  Hundred  in  Tambov  and  as  an  answer 
to  the  declaration  of  martial  law  in  Tambov  and  other  districts. 
The  Tambov  Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolu- 
tionists condemned  Lujenovsky.  Fully  approving  the  sen- 
tence and  fully  conscious  of  the  meaning  of  my  act,  I  took 
upon  myself  the  execution  of  the  sentence.' 

"The  preliminary  hearing  is  over.  I  am  still  very  ill  and 
am  often  delirious.  If  they  kill  me,  I  shall  die  calmly  and 
with  the  feeling  that  I  have  done  something  worth  doing."* 


*It  is  only  for  the  want  of  space  that  we  do  not  mention  here  the  many 
other  courageous  women  who.  at  that  time,  following  the  glorious  revolu- 
tionary traditions  established  by  Sophia  Perovskaya  and  Breshko-Bresh- 
kovskaya,  engaged  the  enemies  of  the  Russian  people  in  open,  face-to-face 
battle.  Among  them,  the  following  are  worthy  of  special  mentioning: 
Bitzenko,  Izmailovich,  Ezerskaya,  Fialka.  and  .Maria  Schkolnik. 


CHAPTER  XII 
The  First  and  the  Second  Dumas 

A 5  the  time  for  the  elections  to  the  First  Duma  was  fast 
approaching,  the  Tzar's  Government  proceeded  to 
further  limit  the  few  powers  it  had  originally  granted 
that  body.  New  fundamental  laws  were  enacted.  The  Imperial 
Council  was  to  become  the  upper  chamber  and  have  equal 
rights  with  the  Duma.  But  as  one-half  the  members  of  the 
Imperial  Council  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  Tzar  and  the 
other  half  elected  from  Universities,  Bourse  Committees,  Zem- 
?tvos,  the  Clergy  and  the  NobilityAit  can  readily  be  seen  how 
this  upper  Chamber  could  be  used  to  nullify  the  wishes  of  the 
Duma.  In  addition,  it  was  proclaimed  that  the  Tzar  reserved 
the  nght  to  declare  war  and  make  peace,  to  prorogue  and 
summon  the  Duma  and  conclude  international  treaties,  as  his 
prerogative.    In  fact,  he  was  to  remain  in  autocratic  power. 

The  Socialists  had  decided  to  boycott  the  Duma,  neverthe- 
less, the  results  of  the  elections  gave  the  oppositional  forces 
the  majority  in  the  House.  The  Constitutional-Democrats,  or 
the  Cadets,  as  this  party  is  frequently  called,  were  in  the  lead. 
The  returns  showed  the  election  of  such  well-known  liberals 
as  Prince  E.  G.  Lvov,  S.  A.  Muromtzev,  I.  I.  Petrunkevitch, 
F.  I.  Rodichev,  V.  D.  Nabokov  and  M.  M.  Vinaver.  Prof. 
Paul  Milyukov  had  been  barred  from  the  elections  by  the 
Government  because  of  his  activities  in  the  Union  of  Unions. 

The  Tzar  continued  on  his  path  of  despotism.  On  April  24 
he  replaced  his  ministry  by  a  still  more  reactionary  one. 
Goremykin,  an  old  bureaucrat  with  an  established  reactionary 
reputation,  became  Prime  Minister.  Stolypin,  who,  as  Gover- 
nor of  Saratov,  had  made  a  record  for  himself  as  a  staunch 
adherent  of  the  Tzar's  regime,  was  appointed  Minister  of 
Interior.  At  the  head  of  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  the  de- 
partment that  dealt  with  the  agrarian  problems,  Nicholas  II 
placed  Stishinsky,  a  large  landowner,  extremely  hostile  to  the 
peasantry.  Shcheglovitov,  a  former  liberal  but  now  willing  to 
sell  himself  for  a  career,  was  appointed  Minister  of  Justice- 


\ 


The  First  and  the  Second  Dumas  137 

On  April  27,  1906,  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the  Duma, 
St.  Petersburg  looked  like  a  city  beleaguered.  Military  patrols 
rode  up  and  down  the  streets  of  the  Capital  and  soldiers  filled 
the  Square  before  the  Winter  Palace.  The  bridges  on  the 
Nieva  were  closed  to  keep  the  workingmen  from  approaching 
the  Winter  Palace  and  the  Duma.  The  people  showed  no 
signs  of  rejoicing  on  this  day  of  the  opening  of  the  first  Rus- 
sian Parliament,  for  the  realization  of  which  thousands  upon 
thousands  had  suffered  exile  in  far-away  out-post  Siberian 
villages,  imprisonment  in  dungeons,  knouting  and  fiendish 
maltreatment. 

The  Tzar's  speech,  when  he  received  the  deputies  to  the 
First  Duma,  was  very  non-committal.  The  Tavrichesky  Pal- 
ace had  been  given  over  as  a  meeting  place  for  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  Going  from  the  Winter  Palace  to 
the  Tavrichesky  Palace,  the  members  of  the  Duma  had  to  pass 
by  several  prisons.  Through  the  prison  bars  pale  faces  strained, 
and  shouts  of  "Amnesty!"  "Amnesty!"  followed  the  deputies 
to  their  meeting  place.  The  people  on  the  street  pressed  as 
close  to  their  representatives  as  the  troops  would  permit 
them,  and  here  and  there  was  heard  the  call :  "Amnesty !"  The 
deputies  were  deeply  affected  and  immediately  after  the  for- 
malities of  opening  the  Duma,  the  oldest  member  of  the  Duma, 
T.  I.  Petrunkevitch,  in  a  speech  that  echoed  the  pent-up  feelings 
of  the  other  members,  called  upon  the  Duma  to  request  am- 
nesty for  the  political  prisoners,  as  their  first  duty.  Between 
seventy  and  eighty  thousand  of  Russia's  best  men  and  women 
were  at  that  very  moment  being  treated  like  common  crim- 
inals, for  their  part  in  the  battle  against  Tzarism. 

In  an  address  presented  to  the  Tzar,  the  First  Duma  out- 
lined a  full  program  of  reforms  urgently  needed  for  the  coun- 
try's welfare.  The  Parliament  demanded  full  political  free- 
dom, amnesty  for  all  who  had  been  imprisoned  for  political  or 
religious  convictions,  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment, 
responsibility  of  the  Cabinet  to  the  Legislative  Bodies,  auton- 
omy for  Poland  and  Finland,  the  democratization  of  the  laws 
governing  elections  to  the  Imperial  Duma  and  the  organs  of 


138  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

local  self-government, — the  Municipalities  and  Zemstvos, — 
the  expropriation  of  State  and  private  lands  with  transmission 
to  the  peasants,  radical  changes  in  the  social  legislation  re- 
ferring to  the  workingmen,  etc.  If  the  program  of  the  First 
Duma  had  been  carried  out,  Russia  would  have  become  a 
constitutional  monarchy  of  the  English  type,  with  very  pro- 
gressive social  legislation. 

Goremykin  answered  the  Duma  in  a  rebuking  speech,  re- 
pudiating all  its  demands,  in  the  name  of  the  Tzar's  Govern- 
ment. At  session  after  session  the  deputies  rehearsed  the 
country's  needs  and  the  Government's  misdeeds,  but  the 
Duma's  interpellations  were  answered  by  the  Ministers  in  such 
a  way  that  the  work  of  the  Duma  could  bring  no  practical 
results. 

When  the  Duma  showed  its  intention  to  demand  action  on 
the  agrarian  problem,  and  to  let  the  people  know  the  attitude 
of  the  Government  towards  the  popular  representatives,  Nich- 
olas IT  decided  that  he  wanted  no  more  of  that  annoying  body. 
On  July  8,  seventy-two  days  after  its  inception,  troops  sur- 
rounded the  Tavrichesky  Palace  and  the  Duma  was  declared 
dissolved.    The  decree  of  dissolution  was  posted  in  the  streets. 

Immediately  after  the  forced  dissolution,  about  two  hundred 
members  of  the  Duma  met  at  Viborg,  in  Finland.  -From  there 
they  issued  a  Manifesto  to  the  people,  calling  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Russia's  only  lawful  body  of  representatives  had  been 
dissolved  for  demanding  that  the  Government  meet  the  coun- 
try's most  urgent  needs.  It  pointed  out  that  though  another 
Duma  had  been  promised  within  seven  months,  the  country 
would  remain  without  popular  representation  for  so  long  a 
period,  with  a  Ministry  that  had  shown  its  utter  incapacity  for 
directing  the  interests  of  Russia.  It  declared  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  use  these  seven  months  to  suppress  the  movement 
for  popular  government.  It  warned  the  people  that  if  the 
Government  succeeded  in  suppressing  this  movement,  there 
would  be  no  Duma.         V*M 

It  called  upon  the  citizens  of  Russia  to  stand  up  for  their 
rights,  and  pointed  out  a  strong  weapon :  "The  Government 
has  no  right,"  said  the  Viborg  Manifesto,  "without  the  consent 


PROFESSOR  S.  A.  MUROMTZEV 

President  of  the   First  Duma.     Prominent  lawyer  and  scientist, 

with  a  European   reputation  for  his  works  on   Roman 

and  civil  law.     Lectured  at  the  University  of 

Moscow.    Died  in  the  fall  of  1910. 


140  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  th-e  people's  representatives,  to  collect  taxes  from  the  people 
or  to  call  them  for  military  duty.  Therefore,  because  the  Gov- 
ernment has  dissolved  the  Imperial  Duma,  you  have  the  right 
to  refuse  both  recruits  and  money.  If  the  Government  con- 
tracts loans  to  secure  funds,  such  loans,  contracted  without  the 
approval  of  the  people's  representatives,  will  be  invalid ;  the 
Russian  people  will  never  acknowledge  them  and  will  not  pay 
them.  Until  the  people's  representatives  are  convened  do  not 
give  a"  kopeck  for  the  treasury,  nor  a  recruit  for  the  army." 

The  signers  of  this  Manifesto  were  sentenced  to  three 
months'  imprisonment  and  deprived  of  electoral  rights.  But 
the  Socialists  and  the  Labor  Group  of  the  Duma*  considered 
this  appeal  for  passive  resistance! insufficient,  and  they  issued 
appeals  to  the  workers,  the  peasants,  the  army,  the  navy, 
calling  the  whole  people  to  an  armed  uprising. 

The  response  of  the  masses  was  weak,  and  the  army  re- 
mained loyal  to  its  autocratic  masters.  The  Government 
continued  its  reactionary  policy.  Nevertheless,  preparations 
went  on  for  elections  to  the  Second  Duma.  Stolypin  replaced 
Goremykin  as  Premier.  The  police  were  encouraged,  nay 
ordered,  to  break  up  meetings,  to  arrest,  to  exile,  to  take  any 
measures  necessary  to  put  "undesirable"  candidates  where 
they  could  do  no  harm.  The  Holy  Synod  instructed  priests 
to  sow  the  seeds  of  reaction. 

The  Government  lived  up  to  the  First  Duma's  prediction. 
It  took  every  possible  measure  to  suppress  the  oppositional 
movement.  Court-martials  behind  closed  doors,  executions 
without  any  form  of  trial  became  every-day  occurrences. 

In  spite  and  probably  because  of  the  Government's  tactics, 
the  elections  resulted  in  the  Socialists  gaining  control  of 
almost  one-third  of  the  Duma.  They  had  not  boycotted  the 
elections  this  time.  When  the  Second  Duma  was  convened, 
it  showed  two  powerful  Socialist  factions:  the  Social-Demo- 
crats and  the  Socialists-Revolutionists,  each  with  a  member- 
ship of  over  sixty  deputies. -»  ^v** 

The  spirit  of  the  Cadets  had  simmered  down.     They  had 


•In  spite  of  the  Socialists'  official  boycott  of  the  Duma,  a  few  deputies, 
after  being  elected,  proclaimed  themselves  Social-Democrats.  In  addition, 
the  most  radical  and  socialistically-inclined  peasants'  deputies  organized 
in  the  Labor  Group,  which  acted  in  accord  with  the  group  of  Socialists. 


The  First  and  the  Second  Dumas  141 

decided  to  go  slowly,  do  what  they  could,  but  avoid  conflict 
with  the  Government,  as  far  as  possible.  And  to  the  stabilizing 
'influence  of  the  Cadets  is  due  the  fact  that  the  Second  Duma 
lasted  the  brief  time  it  did  exist,  over  three  months.  The 
Cadets  served  as  the  ballast  in  the  terrible  encounters  between 
the  extreme  right  wing,  composed  of  tools  of  the  Ministry, 
and  the  extreme  left  wing,  the  Socialists.  The  Socialists  and 
the  Cadets  attacked  Stolypin's  measures  of  repression,  the 
daily  executions,  the  court-martials,  the  banishments.  Stolypin 
replied  with  his  famous  :  "First — pacification,  then — reforms." 

On  Jun^e  1st  the  Premier  accused  the  Social-Democrats  of 
having  organized  a  military  plot  and  demanded  that  the  Duma 
hand  over  all  its  Social-Democrats  to  the  Government.  While 
the  Duma  discussed  the  Government's  demands,  a  Tzar's  de- 
cree, issued  on  June  3rd,  dissolved  it.  Thai:  same  day,  the 
Tzar,  declaring  his  divine  prerogative  to  enact  and  repeal  laws, 
changed  the  electoral  law  to  serve  his  ends.  T-hir^  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  according  to  the  new  fundamental  laws,  no  law 
could  be  enacted  without  the  approval  of  the  Duma.  Entire 
classes  were  disfranchised.  Further  modifications  gave  the 
large  landed  proprietors  more  than  half  the  total  number  of 
electoral  votes.  On  this  very  far  from  democratic  law  were 
based  the  elections  to  the  Third  and  Fourth  Dumas. 

The  First  and  Second  Dumas  showed  that  the  famous 
prophesy  of  the  Decembrists,  their  answer  to  the  greeting  sent 
them,  into  Siberia,  by  Russia's  greatest  national  poet,  Pushkin. 
— their  prophesy :  "The  spark  will  burst  into  flame," — had 
been  fulfilled.  A  small  group  of  young  officers  started  the 
Russian  Revolutionary  Movement  in  1825.  Eighty  years  later, 
in  1905,  there  were  already  revolutionary  masses  engaged  in 
open  conflict  with  the  Tzar's  Government. 

The  First  and  Second  Dumas  represented  the  fighting  van- 
guard of  the  Russian  Democracy,  and  on  following  pages  we 
present  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Dumas,  together 
with  a  group  of  the  most  typical  of  them. 


142 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


N.  A.    BORODIN 
Born  1861.  Member  of  Russian 
Extraordinary  Mission  to  the 
U.  S..  after  the  March  Revo- 
lution. 


PRINCE  P.D.DOLGORUKOV 

Born  1866.  Prominent  Zem- 

stvo  leader.     Vice-President 

of  the  Duma. 


PROF.  M.  J.  GERTZENSTEIN 
Born  1859.    Author  of  many- 
works  on  economic  subjects. 
Assassinated  by  "Black 
Hundred." 


PROP.    N.    A.    GREDESKUL 
Born   1864.      S«cond   Vice- 
President  of  the  Duma. 


PROF.    N.    I.   KAREYEV 
Born     1850.      Prominent     his- 
torian.    In    1905    was   impris- 
oned   in    the    Fortress    of    St. 
Peter  and  Paul. 


E.   I.   KEDRIN 
Born  1852.   Nobleman.   In  1905 
was    imprisoned    in    the    For- 
tress  of   St.    Peter   and    Paul. 


PROF.   S.   A.   KOTLAREVSKY 

Born  1873.    Lecturer  at  the 

University  of  Moscow. 


A.    R.    LEDNITSKY 

Born    1866.     Prominent 

Polish  leader. 


PROF.    F.    F.    KOKOSHKIN 

Born  1871.    After  the  Bolshe- 

viki  revolt,  in  November. 

1917,  was  arrested  and 

assassinated. 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.     CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


143 


S-.    C.    LEVIN 

Born  1867.  Now  residing:  in  the 

United   States.    Active  in 

the  Zionist  movement. 


PRINCE  G.  E.  LVOV 
Born  1861.  Prominent  Zem- 
stvo  leader.  President  of  the 
Ail-Russian  Union  of  Zem- 
stvos.  -Prime  Minister  in  the 
first  Provisional  Government. 


N.   N.   LVOV 

Born    1867.     Prominent 

Zemstvo  worker. 


V.  D.  NABOKOV 
Born    1869.     Prominent    crim- 
inologist.   One  of  the  leaders 
of    the    Constitutional-Demo- 
cratic Party. 


PROF.   P.   I.    NOVGORODTZEV 
Born   1866.    Director  of  the 
Moscow    Commercial    Insti- 
tute.   Lecturer  at  the  Mos- 
cow University. 


FATHER   N.    OGNIEV 

One    of    the    prominent 

speakers  in  the  Duma. 


M.    J.   OSTROGORSKY  PROF.  L.  J.  PETRAZHITZKY         I.    I.    PETRUNKEVITCH 

Born   1852.    Author  of  many        Born    1867.     Enjoys    world-       Born    1844.     Prominent    Zem- 
well-known  works  on  his-  wide  reputation  as  author-       stvo  leader.    One  of  the  found- 

tory  and  jurisprudence.  ity    on    civil    law    and    the       ers     of     the     Constitutional- 

philosophy   of   law.  Democratic-Party. 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


144 


FIGHTERS  FOR    RISSIA'S   FREEDOM 


M.  I.   PBTRUNKEVITCH.  M.D.  P.    A.    SADIRIX  !'K1.\CE  D.I.SCHAKHOVSKOY 

Born   1845.      Prominent  Born   1877.     One  of   the   most  Horn    1861.      Prominent   Zem- 

municipal  worker.  active  workers  in  the  co-  stvo   leader.      Minister  of 

operative    movement  Public  Welfare  in  Ke- 

in  Russia.        '  rensky's  Cabitiet. 


PROF.    E.    N.    SCHEPKIN 

Born   1860.    Lecturer  at  the 

University  of  Moscow. 


PROF.G.F.SHERSHENEVITCH 
Born    1863.    Prominent   scien- 
tist.    Lectured    on    civil    and 
commercial  law  at  the  Kazan  . 
and    Moscow    Universities. 
Died  in   1913. 


M.  M.  VINAVER  V.    E.   YAKUSHKIN 

Born    1863.      Prominent    law-     Born     1856.     Ass't.    Professor 
yer.     One  of  the  Jewish  at  the  University  of  Moscow, 

leaders   in   Russia.  Prominent  publicist. 

Died  in  1912. 


G.  B.  YOLLOS 
Born   1859.      Prominent  publi- 
cist. Editor  of  the  "Russkiya 
Yiedomosti."    Assassinated  by 
the    "Black    Hundred." 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.     CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


FIGHTERS  FOR    RUSSIA'S   FREEDOM 


145 


PROF. 

MAXIM    M.    KOVALEVSKY 

Born   1851.      World   known 

historian,  economist  and 

jurist.     Died  in  1916. 


GEX.   V.   D.   KUZMIX- 

KARAVAYEV 
Born    1859.     Former    lecturer 
at    the    Academy    of    Military 

Jurisprudence. 


PRIXCE   S.   D.    URUSOV 
Former  Ass't   Minister  of  In- 
terior.      Turned    against    the 
old   regime  and  became  one  of 
the  liberal   leaders   in   Russia. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    PARTY  OF  DEMOCRATIC  REFORMS 


A.    F.   ALADIX  S.    V.    AXIKIX  S.   I.  BONPAREY 

Born  1873.   One  of  the  leaders      Born    1869.     Peasant.     One  of        Born  1872.     Son  of  peasant 
of  the   Labor   Group.                        the    leaders    of    the  Pedagogue. 

Labor  Group. 


L.   M.  BRAM-XOX 

Born  1869.    Lawyer  and 

journalist. 


J.    E.    DITZ 
Born  1864.    Lawver 
journalist. 


and 


V.  R.  JACOBSON 

Born  1861.    Lawyer. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    LABOR  GROUP 


146 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


S.    M.    KORNILIEV.    M.D. 

Born    1869.     Graduate    of 

Kazan    University. 


F.   D.   KRIUKOV 

Pedagogue,   publicist   and 

novelist. 


I.   O.   KUZNETZOV 

Born  1879.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


I.  E.  LAVRENTEV 

Born  1879.    Peasant.    Public 

School  teacher. 


K.  V.   LAVRSKT 
Born  1844.    Son  of  priest. 


V.  I.   LUNIN 
Born  1843.  Lawyer.  Was  ar- 
rested   several   times   for 
political   activities. 


E.   P.    MAMAEV 

Born  1868.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


N.    I.    MOREV 

Born    1871.     Representative 

of  the  Cossacks. 


F.  M.  ONIPKO 

Born  1879.    Peasant.    One  of 

the    leaders    of    the 

Labor  Group. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    LABOR  GROUP 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


147 


\    / 


I.   E.   SOLOMKA 

Born  1873.   Peasant.   Public 

School  education. 


T.    I.    SEDELNIKOV 
Born  1871.    Surveyor.    Publi- 
cist.  One  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Labor  Group. 


V.    S.   VIKHAREV 

Born  1875.   Peasant.   Public 

School  aducation. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    LABOR  GROUP 


J.    A.    BARATOV 

Born  1872.    Lawyer.    Member 

of  Tiflis  Municipal 

Duma. 


S.  D.  DZHAPARIDZE 
Born  1870.   Georgian.  Lawyer. 
Was  imprisoned  for  polit- 
ical activities. 


P.  A  ERSHOV 

Born  1878.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


I.    G.    GOMARTELLI.    M.D. 
Born  1875.    Georgian.    Well- 
known  publicist. 


D.  J.  MEDVEDIEV 
Born  1866.    Workingman. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


148 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


M.    I.    MIKHAILICHENKO 

BornlSTl.   Workman.    Public 

School  education. 


I.    I.    RAMISHVILLI 
Born  1859.    Georgian  peasant. 
Teacher.    Imprisoned    several 
times   for  political   activities. 


I.   F.   SAVELIEV 
Born  1874.    Workinsman. 


I.  E.  SHUVALOV 
Born   1875.     Peasant. 


S    N.    TSERETELLI 

Born    1870.     Former   priest. 

Several    times   arrested   for 

political   activities. 


N.  N.  ZHORDANIA 
Born  1870.   Journalist.   Leader 
of    the    Social-Democrat    fac- 
tion  in  the  Duma 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  FIRST  DUMA.    SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


149 


F.    A.    GOLOVIN 

Born  1867.    Nobleman.    Chair 

man    of   Moscow   Zemstvo. 

President     of    the 

Second  Duma. 


M.   S.   ADZHEMOV 
Born  1878.    Lawyer.    One  of 
the    leaders    in    the    Consti- 
tutional-Democratic  Party. 


A.   I.   BAKUNIN,    M.  D. 

Born  1875.     Imprisoned  several 

times  for  political  activities. 

Xephew    ot    the   famous 

Anarchist    leader. 


K.   L.   BARDISH 
Born  1867.  Representative  of 
the  Cossacks.    Former  mem- 
ber of  the  First  Duma. 


S.   U.   BULGAKOV 
Born  1871.    Prominent  econo- 
mist  and   philosopher.     Pro- 
fessor at  the  Moscow 
University. 


M.   V.   CHELXOKOV 

Born  1863.      Secretary  of  the 

Second    Duma.     During:    the 

War,  President  of  the  Union 

of    Municipalities. 


C.  C.  CHERNOSVITOV  PRINCE   P.   D.   DOLGORUKOV  M.    P.    FEDOROV 

Born  1866.    Lawyer.    Former         Born  1S66.  President  of  the        Born  1845.     Prominent  in  rail- 
member  of   the  First  Central  Committee  of  the  road,    commercial    and 
Duma.                                 Constitutional-Democratic  municipal  circles. 

Partv. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.  CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


150 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S   FREEDOM 


I.   V.   GESSEN 
Born  1866.    Prominent  lawyer. 
Arrested  in   1905   and  impris- 
oned   in    the    Fortress    of    St. 
Peter  and  Paul. 


V.  M.   GESSEN 
Born  1868.      Assistant  Profes- 
sor at  the  Petrograd 
University. 


P.   P.   IURENEV 
Born  1874.    Engineer.    Secre- 
tary of  Means  of  Communi- 
cation in  Kerensky's  Cabinet. 


A.   A.   KIZEVETTER  A.   P.  KOZLOV 

Born  1866.     Prominent  publi-  Born  1853.     Peasant.     Impris- 
cist.    Professor    at    the  oned    for    political 

Moscow  University.  activities. 


SH.  KULBAKOV 
Born  1857.  Pedagogue.   Mo- 
hammedan faith. 


N.  N.  KUTLER 

Born  1859.   Former  Minister 

of   Agriculture   in    Count 

Witte's   Cabinet. 


GEN.   V.    D.    KUZMIN- 

KARAVAYEV 

Born  1859.    Former  member  of 

the  First  Duma. 


V.    A.    MAKLAKOV 

Born  1870.    Prominent  lawyer 

and  political  leader. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.  CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


FIGHTERS   FOR    RUSbtA'S   FREEDOM 


D.    A.   PERELESHIN 

Born  1862.    Lawyer.    Served  a 

three  years'  sentence  at  the 

Fortress  of  St.   Peter 

and    Paul. 


FATHER    G.    PETROV 

Born  1868.    Priest.    Prominent 

publicist.       Forced    to    resign 

from    the    clergy    because    of 

his    radical    views. 


F.    T.   RODICHEV 
Born  18.-j6.     Prominent  Zemstvo 
leader.    Secretary  for  Fin- 
land in  the  Provisional 
Government. 


A.  I.  SH1NGARIOV,  M.  D. 
Born  1S67.  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture and  later  of  Finance 
in  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. Arrested  and  assassi- 
nated after  the  Bolsheviki 
revolt. 


SH.    SH.    SIRTL.ANOV 

Born  1847.    Judge.    Formerly 

member  of  the  First 

Duma. 


A.    A.    STACHOVTril 
Born  1858.   Nobleman.  Zem- 
stvo   worker    and 
publicist. 


M.   A.    STACHOVICH 

Born  1861.     Formerly  member 

of    the    First    Duma. 


P.  B.  STRUVE  N.  V.  TESLENKO 

Born  1870.   Prominent  econo-     Born  1870.    Lawyer.    Prominent 
mist  and  publicist.  criminologist. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.  CONSTITUTIONAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


152 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


G.   I.    BASKIN 

Born    1866.       Agriculturist. 

Active  worker  in  the 

Zemstvos. 


M.    I.    BEREZIN 
Born    1864.     Second    Vice- 
President  of  the  Sec- 
ond Duma. 


A.    A.    BULAT 

Born   1873.    Lawyer.    One  of 

the  leaders   in   the   Labor 

Group. 


A.   R.   DAVIDOV 

Born  1862.    Peasant.    Public 

School    education. 


V.  E.  ERSHOV 

Peasant.    Public  School 

education. 


I.   E.   PIANTKH 

Born  1865.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


M.    K.    POPOV.    M.D. 

Born    1852.      Municipal 

worker. 


J.    M.    SITIN 

Born  1860.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


V.   P.   USPENSKT.    M.  D. 
Born    1869.     Assistant    Secre- 
tary  of   the   Second   Duma. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.    LABOR  GROUP 


FIGHTERS   FOR    RUSSIA'S   FREEDOM 


153 


G.    A.    ALEXINSKY  P.  A.   ANIKIN  G.  I.  BELOUSOV 

Born  1879.  One  of  the  leaders        Born  1874.    Pedagogue.    Was     Born  1876.  Workingman.  After 
of  the  Social-Democratic  arrested  in  1905  for  nolit-  dissolution   of   Duma   came 

Faction  in  the  Duma.  ical    activities.  to  U.  S..  where  he  died 

in  January,  1917. 


A.    L.   DZHAPARIDZE 

Born  1875.     Georgian 

publicist. 


M.    M.    FOMICHEV 
Born  1882.     Workingman. 


I.  A.   GUBARIEV 

Born   1876.    Workingman. 

Public  School  education. 


I.    A.    GUJIENKO 
Born    1869.      Workingman. 


I.   N.    XAGIKH  V.   P.   XALIYKIX 

Born   1880.     Workingman.         Born  1852.      Former  Assistant 

to    the    Military    Governor 
of  the  Fergan  District. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.    SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


154 


FIGHTERS  FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


A.  V.  KALININ 
Born    1882.     Workingman. 


C.   E.   KANDELAK  I.   I.    KIRITENKO 

Born  1S79.  Workingman.  Served  Born  1877.    Was  imprisoned 

prison  term   of  twenty-six  several  times  for  political 

months   for  political  activities, 
activities. 


N.   J.   KONSHIN 

Born  1864.  Lawyer.  Formerly 

member  of  the  First  Duma. 


I.   A.   PETROV 
Born    1862.     Workingman. 


I.   R.  ROMANOV 

Born  1881.  Workingman.  Was 

imprisoned   several  times  for 

political  activities. 


V.    G.    SAKHNO 
Born    1864.     Peasant. 


A.   A.    SHPAGIN 
Born  1869.    Workingman.    Pub- 
lic School  education. 


I.  G.  TSERETELLI 
Born  1882.    Secretary  of  Post 
and  Telegraph  and  later  of 
the  Interior  in  the  Provi- 
sional   Government. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.    SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


FIGHTERS   FOR    RUSSIA'S   FREEDOM 


155 


V.  A.  YACKHRUSHEV 
Born  1864.  Workingman.  Trade- 
School  education. 


P.  A.  ZIRIAXOV 

Peasant.    Public  School 
education. 


A.   G.   ZURABOV 

Born  1873.      Journalist.     Was 

imprisoned  and  exiled  for 

political  activities. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA.    SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


A.    I.    AFANASIYEY 

Peasant.    Public  School 

education. 


Y.    G.   ARKHANGELSK^ 

Born  1868.    One  of  the  leaders 

of  the  Socialist-Revolutionist 

Faction  in  the  Duma. 


M.  V.  BATUROV 
Born    1857.      Peasant. 


X.  I.  r><  iLGOPOLOV.  M.D. 
Born  1857.  Was  arrested  in 
1888  and  exiled  to  Siberia. 
Was  exiled  to  Astrakhan  in 
1906.  • 


Born    L848. 


.TA.M  >Y 
Farmer. 


M.    S.    FOKEYEV 

Born  1871.    Peasant.    Through 

self-education    entered    JIos- 

■ow    University.      Member  of 

the  Russian   Bar. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA. 
PARTY  OF  SOCIALISTS-REVOLUTIONISTS 


156 


FIGHTERS   FOR   RUSSIA'S  FREEDOM 


G.    I.   KABAKOV 
Workingman.     Was  impris- 
oned over  two   years   for 
political   activities. 


I.    P.    KHVOROSTUKHIN 

Born  1879.    Peasant.    Public 

School  education. 


U.    S.    KIRNOSOV 
Born   1847.     Peasant. 


FATHER 

K.   A.    KOLOKOLNIKOV 

Priest.      Was    persecuted 

for   radical    views. 


N     J     OVODOV  PR-   !•  RZHEKHIN 

Born  1855.    Peasant.    Public       Born    1876.      Publicist.      Was 
School  education.  imprisoned  and  exiled  for 

political  activities. 


P.    S.    SHIRSKY 
Born  1872.    Lawyer.    Was  im- 
prisoned   and    exiled    for 
political  activities. 


P.   S.   SIGOV 

Born   1875.    High    School 

graduate. 


D.  V.  URAZOV.   M.D. 

Graduate  of  the   Moscow 

University. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  SECOND  DUMA. 
PARTY  OF  SOCIALISTS-REVOLUTIONISTS 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution 

A  FTER  the  dissolution  of  the  Second  Duma,  Stolypin  was 
/-%  crazed  by  his  power.  He  rioted  in  persecutions  of 
"*"  nationalities  and  religions.     The  Jews  were  baited  worse 

than  ever,  and  anti-Semitism  was  openly  encouraged  by  the 
Government.  The  famous  Beilis  case  was  but  one  of  the  many 
efforts  of  the  Government  to  excite  religious  hatred  by  reviv- 
ing the  accusation  of  ritual  murder,  a  relic  of  the  religious 
persecutions  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Kokovtzev,  as  Minister  of  Finance,  had  dared  to  declare 
from  the  Duma  platform :  "Thank  God,  we  have  no  parlia- 
ment." After  Stolypin  was  assassinated,  this  man  succeeded 
him  and  carried  on  his  policies.  As  the  Russian  civil  law  did 
not  permit  capital  punishment,  court-martials  were  called  into 
existence  continuously,  and  executions  went  on  relentlessly. 
University  students  were  exiled,  imprisoned,  executed.  Promi- 
nent professors  were  forced  to  resign  and  men  willing  to  bow 
to  autocracy's  dictates  filled  their  places. 

All  these  repressive  measures  could  not  stop  the  development 
of  revolutionary  thought  and  feeling  in  the  country.  (  The  first 
Revolution,  the  Revolution  of  1905,  did  not  succeed,— >a  second 
had  to  come.  The  principal  revolutionary  forces  during  the 
first  uprising  in  Russia  were  the  workers,  who  demanded  polit- 
ical freedom,  the  right  to  organize,  and  progressive  measures 
in  social  legislation  ;  the  peasants,  whose  chief  demand  was 
land  and  equality  of  rights  with  all  other  classes  in  Russia ;  the 
different  nationalities,  the  Polish,  Finnish,  Jewish,  and  other 
elements  who  demanded  autonomy  or  equal  rights  ;  the  cap- 
italistic class,  the  bourgeoisie  which  had  become  an  influential 
factor  in  Russia's  economic  life  with  the  development  of  cap- 
italism. The  needs  of  none  of  these  groups  were  satisfied. 
The  country  did  not  receive  even  elementary  political  rights, 
the  workers  did  not  receive  the  right  to  organize,  the  peasants 
received  no  land,   Finland  was  deprived  of  her  Constitution. 


158  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Poland  was  as  oppressed  as  before,  the  sufferings  of  the  Jews 
became  daily  more  and  more  unbearable. 
/  The  first  Revolution  brought  the  country  no  gains,  and  the 
reaction  which  came  in  the  middle  of  1906  was  a  reaction 
more  of  psychological  than  of  sociological  nature.  The  great 
country  quieted  down  almost  completely,  not  because  the  great 
tasks  of  the  first  Revolution  were  accomplished,  but  because 
the  country  was  exhausted  from  the  enervating  battle  with 
the  old  regimey  The  demands  made  by  the  First  Duma,  very 
much  more  moderate  than  the  country  it  represented,  showed 
that  the  entire  nation  was  opposed  to  the  Tzar's  Government. 
But  the  nobility  was  still  with  the  Tzar,  and  the  Government 
had  at  its  service  the  powerful  machinery  of  the  police  and 
almost  the  entire  army,  officered  mostly  by  Russian  noblemen, 
blindly  devoted  to  the  throne. 

The  reaction,  the  darkest  reaction  in  Russia's  national  his- 
tory, began  in  the  middle  of  1906.  It  is  interesting  to  ob- 
serve that  the  culminating  point  of  this  reaction  was  the  Fall 
of  1910,  when,  in  October,  Professor  S.  A.  Muromtzev,  the 
President  of  the  First  Duma,  the  most  respected  citizen, 
the  symbol  of  the  longing  for  freedom  in  Russia,  died, 
and  in  November, — Leo  Tolstoy, the  greatest  genius  Russia  has 
contributed  to  the  world's  culture.  These  deaths  seemed  to 
awaken  the  great  country.  The  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people  on  the  streets  of  Moscow  at  the  funeral  of  Professor 
Muromtzev,  the  thousands  of  people  and  delegations  coming 
from  all  parts  of  Russia,  on  special  trains,  to  the  little  village 
where  Tolstoy  was  to  be  buried',  the  public  speeches  made  in 
those  days, — all  these  showed  that  the  country  was  awakening 
from  its  deep  sleep  to  new  political  and  cultural  activities. 

The  Fall  of  1910  may  be  marked  as  the  beginning  of  the  new 
movement  against  the  Tzar's  Government.  It  had  taken  almost 
four  years  for  the  reaction  to  reach  its  lowest  mark, — from  the 
beginning  of  1906  to  the  end  of  1910.— and  it  took  another  four 
years  for  the  country,  awakened  to  political  activities,  to 
reach  again  the  boiling  point  of  revolution.  In  July,  1914,  just 
before  the  war,  400,000  St.  Petersburg  workers  went  out  on 


The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution  159 

political  strike  and  the  streets  of  St.  Petersburg  were  covered 
with  barricades. 

This  time  the  united  country  again  faced  the  Government 
as  its  enemy.  The  same  elements  that  had  participated  in  the 
first  Revolution  faced  the  Tzar's  Government,  ready  to  fight. 
Now  they  were  more  experienced  politically,  and  the  moderate 
elements  among  them  more  determined  than  during  the  first 
Revolution.  The  cruel  policy  of  the  Government  during  the 
time  of  reaction  and  the  illuminating  speeches  in  the  Duma, 
from  day  to  day,  explaining  to  the  people  the  dramatic  political 
situation  in  the  country,  had  produced  results.  The  mod- 
erate elements,  who,  terrified  at  the  Socialists'  demands  dur- 
ing the  first  Revolution,  had  given  their  support  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, now  abandoned  it.  In  July,  1914,  the  Government 
again  faced  a  united  front  of  all  the  progressive  forces  of  the 
country,  a  powerful  coalition  led,  as  in  1905,  by  the  fighting 
vanguard  of  the  Revolution,  the  St.  Petersburg  proletariat. 

Then  suddenly  came  the  war,  which  was  immediately 
recognized  by  all  the  progressive  and  almost  all  the 
revolutionary  forces  in  Russia  as  the  war  of  justice  on  the 
side  of  the  Allies,  as  the  war  for  freedom  and  democracy 
in  Europe.  Most  of  the  revolutionary  elements  decided 
temporarily  to  abandon  the  internal  conflict  and  to  concentrate 
all  the  attention  of  the  democratic  forces  on  carrying  on  the 
war  until  German  militarism  be  crushed.  This  was  an  in- 
valuable service  rendered,  at  this  critical  moment,  by  Russian 
Radical  and  Socialist  leaders  to  their  country  and  to  all  hu- 
manity. While  Nicholas  Lenine,  who  then  had  a  very  small 
following  in  the  ranks  of  the  Russian  Socialists,  in  his  paper, 
the  "Social-Democrat,"  published  in  Switzerland,  propagated 
the  idea  of  the  necessity  of  Russia's  defeat  for  the  sake  of 
Russia's  democratic  progress,  such  prominent  leaders  as  the 
old  Prince  Peter  Kropotkin,  as  George  Plekhanov,  the  founder 
of  the  Russian  Social-Democracy,  as  Vladimir  P>ourtzef¥  and 
others  indorsed  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies,  from  the 
very  beginning,  and  helped  the  Allied  cause,  as  much  as  they 
could,  by  their  powerful  influence  on  the  democratic  masses 


160  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  Russia.  Soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  following 
Socialist  Manifesto,  signed  by  George  Plekhanov,  N.  Avksen- 
tiev,  B.  Voronov,  Leo  Deutch,  Grigory  Alexinsky,  I.  Bunakov, 
A.  Bach  and  others,  was  addressed  to  the  Russian  laboring 
masses : 

"We,  the  undersigned,  belong  to  the  different  shades  of 
Russian  socialistic  thought.  We  differ  on  many  things,  but 
we  firmly  agree  in  that  the  defeat  of  Russia  in  her  struggle 
with  Germany  would  mean  her  defeat  in  her  struggle  for 
freedom,  and  we  think  that,  guided  by  this  conviction,  our 
adherents  in  Russia  must  come  together  for  a  common  service 
to  their  people,  in  the  hour  of  the  grave  danger  the  country  is 
now  facing. 

"We  address  ourselves  to  the  politically  conscious  work- 
ingmen,  peasants,  artisans,  clerks, — to  all  of  them  who  earn 
their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  and  who,  suffering 
from  the  lack  of  means  and  want  of  political  rights,  are  strug- 
gling for  a  better  future  for  themselves,  for  their  children,  and 
for  their  brethren. 

"We  send  them  our  hearty  greeting,  and  persistently  say 
to  them :  Listen  to  us  in  this  fatal  time,  when  the  enemy  has 
conquered  the  Western  strongholds  of  Russia,  has  occupied 
an  important  part  of  our  territory  and  is  menacing  Kiev. 
Petrograd  and  Moscow,  these  most  important  centres  of  our 
social  life. 

"Misinformed  people  may  tell  you  that  in  defending  your- 
selves from  the  German  invasion,  you  support  our  old  political 
regime.  These  people  want  to  see  Russia  defeated  because  of 
their  hatred  of  the  Tzar's  government.  Like  one  of  the  heroes 
of  our  genius  of  satire,  Shchedrin,  they  mix  Fatherland  with  its 
temporary  bosses.  But  Russia  belongs  not  to  the  Tzar,  but  to 
the  Russian  working  people.  In  defending  Russia,  the  working 
people  defend  themselves,  defend  the  road  to  their  freedom. 
As  we  said  before,  the  inevitable  consequences  of  German 
victory  would  be  the  strengthening  of  our  old  regime. 

"The  Russian  reactionaries  understand  this  very  thorough- 
ly.    In  a  faint,  half-hearted  manner  are  they  defending  Russia 


The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution  161 

from  Germany.  The  Ministers  who  resigned  recently,  Mak- 
lakov  and  Shcheglovitov,  presented  a  secret  report  to  the 
Tzar,  in  November,  1914,  in  which  they  explained  how  advan- 
tageous it  would  be  for  the  Tzar  to  make  a  separate  peace 
with  Germany.  They  understand  that  the  defeat  of  Germany 
would  be  a  defeat  of  the  principles  of  monarchism,  so  dear 
to  all  European  reactionaries. 

"Our  people  will  never  forget  the  failure  of  the  Tzar's 
Government  to  defend  Russia.  But  if  the  progressive,  the 
politically  conscious  people  will  not  take  part  in  the  struggle 
against  Germany,  the  Tzar's  government  will  have  an  excuse 
for  saying :  Tt  is  not  our  fault  that  Germany  defeats  us ; 
it  is  the  fault  of  the  revolutionists  who  have  betrayed  their 
country,'  and  this  will  vindicate  the  government  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people. 

"The  political  situation  in  Russia  is  such  that  only  across 
the  bridge  of  national  defense  can  we  reach  freedom.  Remem- 
ber, we  do  not  tell  you,  first  victory  against  the  external 
enemy  and  then  revolution  against  the  internal,  the  Tzar's 
government. 

"In  the  course  of  events  the  defeat  of  the  Tzar's  govern- 
ment may  serve  as  a  necessary  preliminary  condition  for  and 
even  as  a  guaranty  of  the  elimination  of  the  German  danger. 
The  French  revolutionists  of  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
would  never  have  been  able  to  overcome  the  enemy,  attack- 
ing France  on  all  sides,  had  they  not  adopted  such  tactics 
only  when  the  popular  movement  against  the  old  regime  be- 
came mature  enough  to  render  their  efforts  effective. 

"Furthermore,  you  must  not  be  embarrassed  by  the  argu- 
ment of  those  who  believe  that  everyone  that  defends  his 
country  refuses  thereby  to  take  part  in  the  struggle  of  the 
classes.  These  persons  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking 
about. 

"In  the  first  place,  in  order  that  the  struggle  of  the  classes 
in  Russia  should  be  successful,  certain  social  and  political 
conditions  must  exist  there.  These  conditions  will  not  exist 
if  Germanv  wins. 


162  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"In  the  second  place,  if  the  working-man  of  Russia  cannot 
but  defend  himself  against  the  exploitation  of  the  Russian 
landed  aristocrat  and  capitalist,  it  seems  incomprehensible 
that  he  should  remain  inactive  when  the  lasso  of  exploitation 
is  being  drawn  about  his  neck  by  the  German  landed  aristo- 
crat (the  Junker)  and  the  German  capitalist  who  are,  unfor- 
tunately, at  the  present  moment  supported  by  a  considerable 
part  of  the  German  proletariat  that  has  turned  traitor  to  its 
duty  of  solidarity  with  the  proletariat  of  other  countries. 

"By  striving  to  the  utmost  to  cut  this  lasso  of  German  im- 
perialistic exploitation,  the  proletariat  of  Russia  will  continue 
the  struggle  of  the  classes  in  that  form  which  at  the  present 
moment  is  most  appropriate,  fruitful  and  effective. 

"It  has  been  our  country's  fate  once.before  to  suffer  from  the 
bloody  horrors  of  a  hostile  invasion.  But  never  before  did 
it  have  to  defend  itself  against  an  enemy  so  well  armed,  so 
skillfully  organized,  so  carefully  prepared  for  his  plundering 
enterprise  as  he  is  now. 

"The  position  of  the  country  is  dangerous  to  the  highest 
degree  ;  therefore  upon  all  of  you,  upon  all  the  politically  con- 
scious children  of  the  working"  people  of  Russia,  lies  an 
enormous  responsibility. 

"If  you  say  to  yourselves  that  it  is  immaterial  to  you  and 
to  vour  less  developed  brothers  as  to  who  wins  in  this  great 
international  collision  going  on  now,  and  if  you  act  accord- 
ingly, Russia  will  be  crushed  by  Germany.  And  when  Russia 
will  be  crushed  by  Germany,  it  will  fare  badly  with  the  Allies. 
This  does  not  need  any  demonstration. 

"But  if,  on  the  contrary,  you  become  convinced  that  the 
defeat  of  Russia  will  reflect  badly  upon  the  interests  of  the 
wrorking  population,  and  if  you  will  help  the  self-defense 
of  our  country  with  all  your  forces,  our  country  and  her  allies 
will  escape  the  terrible  danger  menacing  them. 

"Therefore,  go  deeply  into  the  situation.  You  make  a  great 
mistake  if  you  imagine  that  it  is  not  to  the  interests  of  the 
working  people  to  defend  our  country.  In  reality,  nobody's 
interests  suffer  more  terribly  from  the  invasion  of  an  enemy 
than  the  interests  of  the  working  population. 


The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution  163 

"Take,  for  instance,  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870-71 . 
When  the  Germans  besieged  Paris  and  the  cost  of  all  the 
necessaries  of  life  rose  enormously,  it  was  clear  that  the  poor 
suffered  much  more  than  the  rich.  In  the  same  way  when 
Germany  exacted  five  billions  of  contribution  from  vanquished 
France,  this  same,  in  the  final  count,  was  paid  by  the  poor; 
for  paying  that  contribution  indirect  taxation  was  greatly 
raised,  the  burden  of  which  nearly  entirely  falls  upon  the 
lower  classes. 

"More  than  that.  The  most  dangerous  consequence  to 
France,  due  to  her  defeat  in  1870-71,  was  the  retardation  of 
her  economic  development.  In  other  words,  the  defeat  of 
France  badly  reflected  upon  the  contemporary  interests  of  her 
people,  and  even  more,  upon  her  entire  subsequent  develop- 
ment. 

"The  defeat  of  Russia  by  Germany  will  much  more  injure 
our  people  than  the  defeat  of  France  injured  the  French 
people.  The  war  now  exacts  incredibly  large  expenditures.  It 
is  more  difficult  for  Russia,  a  country  economically  backward, 
to  bear  that  expenditure  than  for  the  wealthy  States  of  West- 
ern Europe.  Russia's  back,  even  before  the  war,  was  bur- 
dened with  a  heavy  State  loan.  Now  this  debt  is  growing  by 
the  hour,  and  vast  regions  of  Russia  are  subject  to  wholesale 
devastation. 

"If  the  Germans  will  win  the  final  victory,  they  will  demand 
from  us  an  enormous  contribution,  in  comparison  with  which 
the  streams  of  gold  that  poured  into  victorious  Germany 
from  vanquished  France,  after  the  war  of  1871.  will  seem  a 
mere  trifle. 

"But  that  will  not  be  all.  The  most  consequent  and  out- 
spoken heralds  of  German  imperialism  are  even  now  saying 
that  it  is  necessary  to  exact  from  Russia  the  cession  of  im- 
portant territory,  which  should  be  cleared  from  the  present 
population  for  the  greater  convenience  of  German  settlers. 
Never  before  have  plunderers,  dreaming  of  despoiling  a  con- 
quered people,  displayed  such   cynical  heartlessness! 

"But  for  our  vanquishers  it  will  not  be  enough  to  exact 
an    unheard-of    enormous    contribution    and    to    tear    up    our 


164  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

western  border  lands.  Already,  in  1904,  Russia,  being  in  a 
difficult  situation,  was  obliged  to  conclude  a  commercial 
treaty  with  Germany,  very  disadvantageous  to  herself.  The 
treaty  hindered,  at  the  same  time,  the  development  of  our 
agriculture  and  the  progress  of  our  industries.  It  affected, 
with  equal  disadvantage,  the  interests  of  the  farmers  as  well 
as  of  those  engaged  in  industry.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  what 
kind  of  a  treaty  victorious  German  imperialism  would  impose 
upon  us.  In  economic  matters,  Russia  would  become  a  Ger- 
man colony.  Russia's  further  economic  development  would 
be  greatly  hindered  if  not  altogether  stopped.  Degeneration 
and  deprivation  would  be  the  result  of  German  victory  for 
an  important  part  of  the  Russian  working  people. 

"What  will  German  victory  bring  to  Western  Europe? 
After  all  we  have  already  said,  it  is  needless  to  expatiate  on 
how  many  of  the  unmerited  economic  calamities  it  will  bring 
to  the  working  population  of  the  western  countries,  allied  to 
Russia.  We  wish  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  following: 
England,  France,  even  Belgium  and  Italy,  are,  in  a  political 
sense,  far  ahead  of  the  German  Empire,  which  has  not  as  yet 
grown  up  to  a  parliamentary  regime.  German  victory  over 
these  countries  would  be  the  victory  of  the  old  over  the  new, 
and  if  the  democratic  ideal  is  dear  to  you,  you  must  wish 
success  to  our  western  Allies. 

"Indifference  to  the  issue  of  this  war  would  be,  for  us, 
equal  to  political  suicide.  The  most  important,  the  most 
vital  interests  of  the  proletariat  and  of  the  laboring  peasantry 
demand  of  you  an  active  participation  in  the  defense  of  the 
country.  .  .  .  Your  watchword  must  be  victory  over  the  foreign 
enemy.  In  an  active  movement  toward  such  victory,  the  live 
forces  of  the  people  will  become  free  and  strong. 

"Obedient  to  this  watchword,  you  must  be  as  wise  as 
serpents.  Although  in  your  hearts  may  burn  the  flame  of 
noble  indignation,  in  your  heads  must  reign,  invariably,  cold 
political  reckoning.  You  must  know  that  zeal  without  reason 
is  sometimes  worse  than  complete  indifference.  Every  act 
of   agitation    in    the   rear   of   the   army,   fighting   against   the 


The  Coming  of  the  Second  Revolution  165 

enemy,  would  be  equivalent  to  high  treason,  as  it  would  be 
a  service  to  the  foreign  enemy. 

"The  thunders  of  the  war  certainly  cannot  make  the  Rus- 
sian manufacturers  and  merchants  more  idealistic  than  they 
were  in  time  of  peace.  In  the  filling  of  the  numerous  orders, 
inevitable  during  the  mobilization  of  industry  for  war  needs, 
the  capitalists  will,  as  they  are  accustomed  to,  take  great  care 
of  the  interests  of  capital,  and  will  not  take  care  of  the  interests 
of  hired  labor.  You  will  be  entirely  right  if  you  wax  indignant 
at  their  conduct.  But  in  all  cases,  whenever  you  desire  to 
answer  by  a  strike,  you  must  first  think  whether  such  action 
would  not  be  detrimental  to  the  cause  of  the  defense  of  Russia. 

"The  private  must  be  subject  to  the  general.  The  work- 
men of  every  factory  must  remember  that  they  would  com- 
mit, without  any  doubt,  the  gravest  mistake,  if  considering 
only  their  own  interests,  they  forget  how  severely  the  interests 
of  the  entire  Russian  proletariat  and  peasantry  would  suffer 
from  German  victory. 

"The  tactics  which  can  be  defined  by  the  motto,  'All  or 
nothing,'  is  the  tactics  of  anarchy,  fully  unworthy  of  the  con- 
scious representatives  of  the  proletariat  and  peasantry.  The 
General  Staff  of  the  German  army  would  greet  with  pleasure 
the  news  that  we  had  adopted  such  tactics.  Believe  us  that 
this  Staff  is  ready  to  help  all  those  who  would  like  to  preach 
it  in  our  country.  They  want  trouble  in  Russia,  they  want 
strikes  in  England,  they  want  everything  that  would  facilitate 
the  achievement  of  their  conquering  schemes. 

"But  you  will  not  make  them  rejoice.  You  will  not  forget 
the  words  of  our  great  fabulist:  'What  the  enemy  advises  is 
surely  bad.'  You  must  insist  that  all  your  representatives 
take  the  most  active  part  in  all  organizations  created  now. 
under  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  for  the  struggle  with  the 
foreign  foe.  Your  representatives  must,  if  possible,  take  part 
not  only  in  the  work  of  the  special  technical  organizations. 
such  as  the  War-Industrial  Committees  which  have  been  cre- 
ated for  the  needs  of  the  army,  but  also  in  all  other  organiza- 
tions of  social  and  political   character. 


166  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"The  situation  is  such  that  we  cannot  come  to  freedom  in 
any  other  way  than  by  the  war  of  national  defense." 

Unfortunately,  after  a  year  of  revolutionary  development, 
since  March,  1917,  other  tendencies  than  those  obvious  in  this 
Manifesto  have  gained  control  over  the  Russian  proletariat 
and  especially  over  the  Russian  soldiers.  Lenine's  influence, 
at  least  temporarily,  has  overwhelmed  the  influence  of  George 
Plekhanov. 

Before  presenting,  as  far  as  possible,  by  documents,  the 
development  of  the  Russian  democracy,  during  the  year  of 
the  Revolution,  which  has  brought  her  to  the  present  crjsis, 
we  will  supplement  what  we  have  said  above,  about  the  Rus- 
sian Revolutionary  Movement,  with  several  pages  devoted  to 
those  Russian  revolutionists  who  may  be  called  the  spiritual 
leaders  of  the  Russian  Revolutionary  Movement. 


Part  II 

The  Spiritual  Leaders  of  the 
Revolutionary  Movement  in  Russia 


CHAPTER  I 

Mikhail  Alexandrovich  Bakunin 

MIKHAIL  A.  BAKUNIN  was  born  on  the  8th  of  May. 
1814,  in  the  village  of  Priamukhino,  in  the  Province  of 
Tver.  His  father,  who  had  been  in  the  diplomatic 
service,  had  spent  his  youth  in  Florence  and  Naples,  as  attache 
to  the  Russian  Embassy.  Having  resigned  from  his  office,  he 
went  to  live  on  his  family  estate,  and  married  an  eighteen- 
year-old  girl  of  the  well-known  Russian  family  of  Muraviov. 
He  was  a  liberal  by  conviction  and  had  been  a  member  of  one 
of  the  Decembrist  societies.  After  the  events  of  December  14, 
1825,  he  became  sceptical  about  the  liberal  movement  and 
decided  to  devote  all  his  time  to  the  management  of  his  estate 
and  to  the  bringing  up  of  his  children.  Mikhail  was  his  oldest 
son.  When  Mikhail  reached  the  age  of  fifteen,  he  entered 
the  military  school  of  St.  Petersburg.  Here  he  spent  three 
years.  Then  he  was  sent  to  join  a  battery  which  was  quar- 
tered in  the  Province  of  Minsk. 

This  occurred  immediately  after  the  Polish  rebellion  of  1830 
had  been  suppressed.  The  sight  of  terrorized  Poland  made  a 
very  deep  impression  on  the  young  officer  and  sowed  in  him 
a  profound  hatred  of  despotism.  At  the  expiration  of  two  years 
he  resigned  and  gave  up  his  military  career  for  good.  He  then 
went  to  Moscow  where  he  lived  for  the  next  six  years.  In 
Moscow  he  became  absorbed  in  the  study  of  philosophy,  be- 
ginning with  the  French  encyclopedists,  and  later  on.  b  gether 
with  his  friends,  Stankevitch  and  Bielinsky.  he  became  inter- 
ested in  Fichte. 

In  1840  Bakunin  went  to  St.  Petersburg  and  from  there  to 
Berlin  for  the  purpose  of  studying  German  philosophic 
thought.  In  1842  he  went  to  Dresden  where  he  met  Arnold 
Rougue,  who  was  publishing  the  "Deutsche  Jahrbucher." 

But  the  Saxon  Government  feared  the  activities  of  Rougue 
and  his  collaborators,  and  Bakunin  had  to  leave  Saxony  in 
January,  1843.  He  went  to  Zurich.  The  summer  of  1843 
Bakunin  spent  in  Switzerland.  There  he  came  in  contact 
with  the  German  communists. 


172  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Due  to  the  persecutions  of  the  Swiss  police  and  the  demands 
of  the  Russian  Embassy  that  he  return  to  Russia,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  Berne  for  Brussels  in  February,  1844.  Later 
he  left  Brussels  for  Paris,  where  he  stayed  until  December, 
1847. 

In  Paris  Bakunin  met  Karl  Marx  and  Engels  who  were 
then  elaborating  their  theory.  Bakunin  also  became  acquainted 
with  Proudhon  and  met  him  very  often.  Agreeing  on  some 
essential  points  and  disagreeing  on  others,  they  engaged  in 
discussions  which  sometimes  lasted  through  the  night.  There 
he  also  met  George  Sand,  and  became  an  admirer  of  her  talent. 
These  years  spent  in  Paris  were  the  most  fruitful  from  the 
point  of  view  of  Bakunin's  intellectual  development.  It  was 
just  at  this  time  that  his  revolutionary  ideas  began  to  take 
shape,  and  it  was  then  that  the  cornerstone  of  his  future 
revolutionary  program  was  laid. 

At  the  banquet  given  on  November  29,  1847,  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  Polish  Revolution  of  1830,  Bakunin  delivered 
an  address  for  which  he  was  expelled  from  France,  at  the 
request  of  the  Russian  Government. 

Bakunin  went  to  Brussels  where  Marx  was  then  residing, 
after  being  expelled  from  France,  in  1845. 

The  revolution  of  February  24th  enabled  Bakunin  to  return 
to  France.  "Having  returned  from  Brussels  to  Paris,"  says 
ITertzen,  "Bakunin  plunged  deep  into  the  high  sea  of  revolu- 
tionary activities.  He  did  not  leave  the  barracks  of  the  Moun- 
taineers, slept  there,  ate  with  them,  and  continually  preached 
the  doctrine  of  communism,  the  levelling  in  the  name  of  equal- 
ity, the  liberation  of  all  Slavs,  the  annihilation  of  Austria,  the 
social  revolution  until  the  last  foe  is  shot."  The  revolutionary 
events  in  Vienna  and  in  Berlin,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  re- 
quest of  the  revolutionists  of  Paris,  on  the  other,  made  him 
go  to  Germany,  from  where  he  intended  to  take  part  in  the 
Polish  revolutionary  movement. 

Bakunin  went  to  Berlin,  Breslau,  and  then  to  Prague,  where 
he  made  a  futile  attempt  to  carry  on  democratic  and  revolu- 
tionary propaganda  at  the  Congress  of  Slavs,  in  June,  and 
where  he  took  part  in  the  insurrection  which  was  cruelly  sup- 


Mikhail  Alexandrovich  Bakunin 


173 


pressed  by  Vindishgretz.     After  this  disappointment  he  re- 
turned to  Breslau. 

Having  been  expelled  from  Prussia  and  Saxony,  Bakunin 
spent  the  remainder  of  1848  in  the  Dukedom  of  Angalt.    There 


M.  A.  BAKUNIN  AND  HIS  WIFE 
(from  an  old  photograph) 

he  printed  in  German  his  pamphlet :  "Aufruf  an  die  Slaven, 
von  einem  russischen  Patrioten  Milkhail  Bakunin.  Mitglied 
des  Slavencongresses."  In  this  pamphlet  he  outlined  his  pro- 
gram, founded  on  the  following  points :  the  union  of  the  Slav 
revolutionaries  with  the  revolutionists  of  other  nations,  such 
as   Hungarians,    Germans    and    Italians,    for   the   purpose   of 


174  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

overthrowing  three  despotic  monarchies,  Russia,  Austria  and 
the  kingdom  of  Prussia;  and  then  the  free  federation  of  the 
freed  Slavic  nationalities. 

In  January,  1849,  Bakunin  secretly  went  to  Leipsig.  At  that 
time  he  was  busy,  together  with  a  group  of  young  Chekhs  from 
Prague,  organizing  the  uprising  in  Bohemia. 

Bakunin's  gigantic  figure,  as  well  as  the  name  "Russian  rev- 
olutionist", attracted  special  attention  to  him.  Immediately 
a  whole  legend  sprang  up  about  him.  He  was,  according  to 
this  legend,  the  real  soul  of  the  entire  revolution ;  he  practised 
a  terrorism  which  made  the  ruling  powers  tremble.  It  was 
said  that  he  advised  that  the  most  precious  paintings  from  the 
Dresden  Gallery  should  be  placed  on  the  barricades,  so  as  to 
prevent  the  Prussians  from  shooting  at  them. 

On  the  ninth  of  May,  the  insurgents,  yielding  to  superior 
forces,  retreated  from  Freiberg.  That  night  Bakunin  was 
arrested  and  given  over  to  the  Prussians. 

Bakunin  was  imprisoned  in  the  fortress  of  Kcenigstein  in 
Saxony.  After  a  few  months  of  preliminary  imprisonment, 
on  the  14th  of  January,  1850,  he  was  sentenced  to  death.  In 
June  the  death  sentence  was  commuted  to  life-long  imprison- 
ment in  the  fortress,  and  then  he  was  given  over  to  Austria, 
in  compliance  with  her  demand.  The  Austrian  Government 
first  incarcerated  him  in  the  fortress  of  Prague,  but,  in  March, 
1851,  he  was  transferred  to  the  citadel  of  Olmuetzk.  Here  he 
was  tried  on  May  15,  1851,  and  was  again  sentenced  to  death, 
but  the  sentence  was  again  commuted  to  life-long  imprison- 
ment. In  the  Austrian  prisons  he  was  treated  with  extreme 
severity.  He  was  handcuffed,  and  even  his  feet  were  chained. 
In  Olmuetzk  he  was  chained  to  the  wall. 

Soon  after  sentence  had  been  pronounced,  Austria  gave 
Bakunin  over  to  the  Russian  Government,  which  imprisoned 
him  in  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul.  Some  time  later 
Count  Orlov  visited  him  and  told  him  that  Tzar  Nicholas  de- 
sired to  have  his  confession.  Bakunin,  realizing,  as  he  said  in 
his  letter  to  Hertzen,  from  Irkutsk,  on  the  8th  of  September, 
1860,  that  "he  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  bear,"  and  that  "his 
activities  were  well  known  and  there  was  nothing  to  hide." 


Mikhail  Alexandrovich  Bakunin  175 

decided  to  write  a  letter  to  the  Tzar.  In  this  letter  he  said: 
"You  wish  to  have  my  confession,  but  you  must  not  ignore  the 
fact  that  a  prisoner  is  not  obliged  to  confess  other  people's  sins. 
My  honor  and  my  conscience  will  never  allow  me  to  betray  any 
one  who  has  taken  me  into  his  confidence,  and  I  shall  therefore 
not  mention  any  names."  According  to  Hertzen's  "Post- 
humous Publications,"  Nicholas,  upon  reading  Bakunin's  letter, 
said,  "He  is  a  good  chap  and  too  clever;  he  ought  to  be  kept 
behind  prison  bars." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Crimean  War  Bakunin  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul  to  Schlussel- 
burg  for  fear  that  the  former  might  be  bombarded  and  taken 
by  the  English.  There  he  contracted  scurvy,  and  lost  almost 
"all  his  teeth. 

Alexander  II  personally  crossed  Bakunin's  name  from  the 
list  of  those  offenders  to  whom  amnesty  was  granted.  A 
month  later.  Bakunin's  mother  appealed  to  the  Tzar,  im- 
ploring him  to  pardon  her  son,  but  the  Emperor  answered: 
"Madam,  I  wish  to  inform  you  that  as  long  as  your  son  is 
alive  he  will  never  be  free."  Bakunin  remained  in  prison 
two  years  after  Nicholas'  death. 

In  1857  Bakunin  was  exiled  to  Tomsk.  At  the  end  of  1853 
he  married  a  young  Polish  woman,  Antonine  Kwiatkowsky. 
Soon  after  that,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  his  relatives,  the 
Governor-General  of  Eastern  Siberia,  Muraviov-Amoursky, 
transferred  Bakunin  to  the  City  of  Irkutsk,  where  he  se- 
cured employment.  Pie  hoped,  however,  that  he  would  be 
freed  and  be  able  to  return  to  Central  Russia.  But  Muraviov 
was  forced  to  resign  from  his  post,  and  Bakunin  realized  that 
to  secure  his  freedom,  no  other  way  was  left  but  to  escape 
from  Siberia.  In  June,  1861,  under  the  pretext  of  making  a 
trip  for  commercial  purposes,  as  well  as  to  explore  the  re- 
gion, he  obtained  the  necessary  permission  from  his  su- 
periors, and,  as  representative  of  the  Sabashnikov  Com- 
pany, he  left  Irkutsk  and  went  to  Nikolaevsk  on  the  Amur. 
Thence  on  a  government  ship,  the  "Strelok,"  he  went  to 
Port  Dekastri  where  he  boarded  the  merchant  vessel  "Vikera." 
on  which  he  sailed  for  Hakodate,  and  from  there  via  Yoko- 


176  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

haraa,  San  Francisco,  and  New  York,  he  went  to  London 
where  he  landed  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  October,  1861. 
Here  he  was  met  by  Hertzen  and  Ogariov. 

During  1862  Bakunin  formulated  his  ideas  in  two  Russian 
pamphlets :  "To  the  Russian,  Polish,  and  all  Slav  Friends" 
and  "The  People's  Business.  Romanov,  Pougachov  or  Pestel?" 

When,  in  1863,  the  Polish  rebellion  broke  out,  he  at  once  made 
efforts  to  join  the  leaders  of  the  revolt,  but  the  attempt  to  or- 
ganize a  Russian  legion  failed.  Bakunin,  who  went  to  Stock- 
holm hoping  to  induce  Sweden  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  Poland, 
was  compelled  to  leave  for  London  without  achieving  his  aim. 
Then  he  went  to  Italy,  and  in  1864  made  another  trip  to 
Sweden.  Later,  via  London,  where  he  met  Marx,  and  via 
Paris,  where  he  saw  Proudhon,  he  returned  to  Italy,  which 
he  found  rejuvenated  after  the  war  of  1859  and  Garibaldi's 
heroic  expedition  of  1860.  In  Italy  he  stayed  until  the  fall 
of  1867.  He  lived  first  in  Florence,  and  then  in  Naples  and 
its  suburbs.  At  that  time  he  worked  out  a  plan  for  a  secret 
international  organization  of  revolutionists,  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  on  propaganda,  and  when  the  time  came  for 
action  as  well.  Beginning  with  1864  he  succeeded  in  group- 
ing together  in  this  society  a  certain  number  of  Italians, 
Frenchmen,  Scandinavians  and  Slavs.  The  society  was  called 
"The  International  Union  of  the  Social  Democracy."  Bakunin 
was  responsible  for  its  program. 

In  this  program  "The  Union  declares  itself  an  atheistic 
organization ;  it  desires  the  final  and  complete  abolition  of 
classes,  the  political,  economic  and  social  equality  of  all  in- 
dividuals of  both  sexes;  it  wishes  that  the  land,  instruments 
of  production  and  all  capital  become  the  collective  property 
of  the  community,  that  these  might  be  utilized  only  by  the 
workers,  i.e.  the  agricultural  and  industrial  associations  of 
workers." 

Later  the  "International  Union  of  the  Social  Democracy" 
affiliated  itself  with  the  "International  Workmen's  Associa- 
tion," whose  program  the  Union  accepted. 

After  the  Congress  of  the  International,  which  was  held  in 
Basle,  in  September,  1869,  Bakunin  left  Geneva  and  went  to 


Mikhail  Alexandrovich  Bakunin  177 

Lokarno.  He  made  this  change  for  personal  reasons.  He 
had  to  settle  down  in  a  place  where  the  cost  of  living  would 
be  lower,  and  where  he  could  quietly  devote  himself  to 
translations  which  he  was  supposed  to  obtain  from  a  St. 
Petersburg  publisher.  In  the  first  place,  he  was  planning  to 
translate  Marx's  "Capital." 

At  that  moment  Bakunin  was  absorbed  in  Russian  affairs. 
In  the  spring  of  1869  he  had  entered  into  close  relations  with 
Nechaiev,  whose  ambition  it  was  to  organize  a  monster  up- 
rising of  the  peasants,  after  the  manner  of  those  which  had 
occurred  in  the  time  of  Razin  and  Pougachov.  He  printed 
two  pamphlets :  "A  Few  Words  to  My  Young  Brothers 
from  Russia"  and  "Science  and  the  All-Important  Cause  of 
the  Revolution" ;  somewhat  later  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  "To 
the  Officers  of  the  Russian  Army,"  and  one  in  French,  entitled 
"Les  Ours  de  Berne  et  l'Ours  de  St.  Petersburg." 

At  that  time  the  Franco-Prussian  war  had  broken  out,  and 
Bakunin  was  following  all  its  developments  with  keen  inter- 
est. On  the  11th  of  August  he  wrote  to  Ogariov :  "You 
are  only  a  Russian,  while  I  am  an  Internationalist."  Bakun- 
in's  ideas  about  the  international  situation  and  how  to  save 
France  and  the  cause  of  liberty,  are  expressed  in  a  small 
pamphlet,  "Letters  to  a  Frenchman." 

Soon  after  he  left  Locarno  for  Lyons.  A  "Committee  for  the 
Salvation  of  France"  was  formed  at  once  for  the  purpose  of 
organizing  a  revolutionary  uprising.  Bakunin  was  the  most 
active  and  the  most  daring  of  its  members.  The  popular 
movement  on  September  26th  helped  the  revolutionaries  to 
take  possession  of  the  town  house  at  Lyons.  But  General 
Clusere's  treachery  and  the  cowardice  of  some  individuals 
who  enjoyed  the  people's  confidence  were  responsible  for  the 
failure  of  this  attempt.  As  for  Bakunin.  the  Procureur 
of  the  Republic  issued  an  order  that  he  be  arrested  imme- 
diately. Despite  this  order,  Bakunin  succeeded  in  going  to 
Marseilles  Avhere  he  hid  and  prepared  for  a  new  uprising. 
The  French  authorities  assiduously  spread  rumors  to  the 
effect  that  Bakunin  was  employed  as  a  Prussian  agent  and 
that  the  Government  of  National  Defense  had  evidence  thereof. 


178  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

On  the  24th  of  October,  Bakunin,  who  was  very  much 
aggravated  over  the  situation  in  France,  left  Marseilles  on 
board  a  ship,  the  captain  of  which  was  a  friend  of  his. 

After  returning  to  Locarno,  where  he  spent  all  winter  in 
solitude,  suffering  material  want  and  privations,  Bakunin 
wrote  "L'Empire  knouto-germanique  sociale,"  which  serves 
as  a  sequel  to  the  "Letters  to  a  Frenchman"  and  explains  the 
new  situation  created  in  Europe  by  the  Franco-Prussian  War. 
This  pamphlet  appeared  in  the  spring  of  1871. 

The  summer  and  fall  of  1872  Bakunin  spent  in  Zurich, 
where,  on  his  initiative,  a  Slavic  branch  of  the  International, 
composed  almost  exclusively  of  Russian  and  Serbian  stu- 
dents, was  organized. 

The  life  full  of  struggle  had  exhausted  Bakunin.  The 
prison  had  aged  him  prematurely.  His  health  was  greatly 
impaired,  and  he  was  longing  for  solitude  and  rest.  When  he 
saw  the  International  reorganized  on  the  principle  of  free 
federation,  he  thought  the  moment  had  arrived  for  parting 
with  his  comrades.  Therefore,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
members  of  the  International,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1873, 
in  which  he  asked  them  to  accept  his  resignation  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  International,  adding:  "I  feel  I  no  longer  have  the 
necessary  strength  for  the  struggle ;  in  the  camp  of  the 
proletariat  I  shall  be  a  hindrance  only  and  not  a  help.  .  .  . 
1  retire,  dear  Comrades,  full  of  gratitude  to  you  and  sym- 
pathy for  your  great  and  sacred  cause,  the  cause  of  humanity. 
I  shall  follow  with  brotherly  anxiety,  all  your  steps,  and  shall 
greet  with  enthusiasm  every  new  successful  achievement  of 
yours.  I  shall  remain  yours  as  long  as  I  live."  Bakunin  lived 
less  than  three  years  after  the  writing  of  this  letter.  He  died 
on  the  first  of  July,   1876. 

That  Bakunin's  influence  expressed  itself  not  only  in  gather- 
ing forces  for  the  realization  of  his  social  ideal,  but  had  a 
moral  value  as  well,  we  learn  from  Prince  Kropotkin's  "Me- 
moirs of  a  Revolutionist."  "What  struck  me  most,"  says 
Kropotkin,  speaking  of  Bakunin's  activities  among  the  watch- 
makers in  the  Jura  Mountains,  "was  that  Bakunin's  influence 
was  felt  much  less  as  the  influence  of  an  intellectual  authority 


Mikhail  Alexandrovich  Bakunin  179 

than  as  the  influence  of  a  moral  personality.  In  conversations 
I  never  heard  it  said,  'Bakunin  says  so,'  or  'Bakunin  thinks 
so,' as  if  it  settled  the  question.  .  .  .  I  only  once  heard  Bakunin's 
name  invoked  as  an  authority  in  itself,  and  that  impressed 
me  so  deeply  that  I  even  now  remember  the  spot  where  the 
conversation  took  place  and  all  the  surroundings.  Some  young 
men  were  indulging  in  talk  that  was  not  very  respectful 
toward  the  other  sex,  when  one  of  the  women  who  were 
present  put  a  sudden  stop  to  it  by  exclaiming:  'Pity  that 
Mikhail  is  not  here;  he  would  put  you  in  your  place!'  "* 

The  colossal  figure  of  the  revolutionist  who  had  given  up 
everything  for  the  sake  of  the  Revolution,  and  lived  for  it 
alone,  borrowing  from  his  conception  of  it  the  highest  and 
the  purest  views  of  life,  according  to  Prince  Kropotkin,  was  an 
inspiration  for  the  many  humans  whose  lives  he  touched. 


*Op.   cit.,  pp.  23S-289. 


P.  L.  LAVROV 

CHAPTER  II 
Peter  Lavrovitch  Lavrov 

PETER  LAVROVITCH  LAVROV  was  born  in  1823,  in 
Melekhov,  in  the  Province  of  Pskov. 
Lavrov's  personality  was  the  incarnation  of  a  certain 
period  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Russian  "intelligentsia." 
Lavrov  was  Colonel  of  Artillery  and  professor  of  mathematics 
in  the  Academy  of  Artillery  in  St.  Petersburg.  He  took  an 
active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Zemstvos  and  Municipalities 
until  the  attempt  of  Karakozov  to  shoot  the  Emperor,  Alex- 
ander II,  in  April,  1866.  As  a  result  of  this  attempt  the 
Government  started  on  a  series  of  extremely  repressive  mea- 
sures. These  were  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  Muraviov, 
"the  hangman,"  who  was  summoned  to  St.  Petersburg  from 
Vilna,  where  he  was  Governor-General.  He  was  given  the 
powers  of  a  dictator.  Together  with  others,  Lavrov  was 
arrested  because  letters  and  poems  considered  suspicious  were 
found  in  his  home. 


Peter  Lavrovitch  Lavrov  181 

Nine  months  he  spent  in  the  military  prison  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, under  a  regime  so  severe,  that  no  exercise,  not  even 
walking  was  allowed  in  the  open  air.  He  was  allowed  to  see 
only  his  mother  and  his  little  daughter,  and  that  only  in  the 
presence  of  the  Military  Governor  of  St.  Petersburg.  Lavrov 
was  never  forced  to  confront  any  witnesses,  he  was  not  even 
accused  of  participating  in  a  political  plot.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  found  guilty  of  spreading  "obnoxious"  ideas  and  enter- 
taining a  sympathetic  attitude  towards  people  with  "pernicious 
convictions."  For  this  offense  he  was  sentenced  to  a  long 
term  of  exile  in  the  Province  of  Vologda.  He  spent  three 
years  in  various  parts  of  that  Province.  In  1870  he  succeeded, 
with  the  aid  of  the  well-known  revolutionist.  Herman  Lopatin. 
in  escaping  to  St.  Petersburg. 

After  a  short  stay  in  the  Capital  and  in  its  sub- 
urbs, during  which  time  he  had  to  hide  very  care- 
fully from  the  police,  he  secured  a  false  passport  made  out 
in  Dr.  Yiemar's  name  and  safely  crossed  the  frontier. 
Having  fortunately  escaped  the  claws  of  the  police.  Lav- 
rov arrived  in  Paris  in  March,  1870,  where  he  became  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  a  bookbinder,  Varlin,  who  rec- 
ommended him  to  the  International.  When  the  revolt  of 
1871  broke  out,  Lavrov  addressed  himself  to  the  revolutionary 
government  with  suggestions  for  reform  in  the  educational 
institutions.  In  the  beginning  of  May,  1871,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  slipping  through  the  ranks  of  the  troops  at  Ver- 
sailles. He  went  first  to  Brussels,  then  to  London,  to  solicit 
the  help  of  the  General  Council  of  the  International  for  the 
Commune.  In  London  he  became  acquainted  with  Marx  and 
Engels.    In  1872  he  went  to  Zurich. 

Lavrov  was  already  known  to  the  Russian  public  as  a  writer. 
In  the  early  sixties  he  published  a  number  of  philosophic 
articles  which  forced  the  attention  #of  the  public.  In  1868 
appeared  his  famous  "Historic  Letters."  One  of  the  Russian 
revolutionary  groups  asked  him,  in  March.  1872,  to  edit  a 
magazine.  The  first  issue  of  the  magazine  "Vperiod"  (For- 
ward) appeared  in  August,  1873.  This  magazine  continued  to 
appear  until  1877. 


182  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

In  1882  Lavrov  was  expelled  from  France  for  having  print- 
ed a  proclamation  signed  by  him  and  Vera  Zasulich,  appeal- 
ing to  European  society  for  help  for  the  Russian  revolution- 
ists, for  those  awaiting  trial  as  well  as  for  those  wasting  their 
lives  in  prison  and  in  exile.  He  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  stay 
abroad  in  anthropological  research  work.  Among  his  early 
contributions  to  the  domain  of  science  were  "Historical  Let- 
ters," which  made  him  known  to  the  intelligent  classes  of 
Russia,  and  the  voluminous  "History  of  Thought."  The  same 
year  he  joined  the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People"  and  became 
one  of  the  main  collaborators  and  editors  of  the  "Viestnik 
Narodnoy  Voli"  ("Messenger  of  the  Will  of  the  People"). 

In  June,  1885,  revolutionary  Russia  and  the  Russian  emi- 
grants in  Europe  celebrated  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of 
his  literary  and  political  activities.  The  following  appeared  in 
the  issue  No.  11-12  of  the  "Viestnik  Narodnoy  Voli": 

"June  2,  1885,  marks  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  P.  L. 
Lavrov's  literary  career,  as  well  as  of  his  political  and  social  ac- 
tivities. This  is  the  first  time  we  are  in  a  position  to  celebrate 
the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  activities  of  any  Russian 
Socialist-Revolutionist.  This  is  truly  a  great  and  memorable 
occasion,  in  the  celebration  of  which  we  shall  be  joined  by  all 
the  honest  thinking  people  of  Russia.  The  Social-Revolutionary 
Movement  in  Russia  began  long  ago.  It  has  already  filled  the 
annals  of  history  with  many  a  glorious  record,  but  only  one  of 
its  numerous  workers  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  his  activ- 
ities bear  some  fruit.  This  good  fortune  has  fallen  to  the 
share  of  our  great  teacher  and  comrade,  Peter  Lavrovitch 
Lavrov.  During  the  twenty-five  years  of  his  activity,  he  has 
persistently  waged  the  great  struggle  for  a  better  future,  for 
our  country's  welfare.  While  struggling  himself,  he  has  been 
teaching  others  to  fight,  and  he  has  been  able  to  see  his  ardent 
propaganda  of  brotherhood  and  liberty  find  fertile  soil  in  the 
ranks  of  our  youth.  In  Russia  and  in  Siberia,  outside  of 
prison  and  within  the  prison  walls,  the  comrades  and  disciples 
of  Peter  Lavrov  are  celebrating  this  great  day,  and  the  man 
in  whose  honor  the  celebrations  are  held  will  be  greeted  warm- 
ly by  all  who  knew  or  have  heard  about  him." 


Peter  Lavrovitch  Lavrov  183 

Here    is    one    of    the    numerous    letters    of    congratulation 
sent  to  Peter  Lavrov,  and  his  answer: 
"Our  dear  Teacher: 

"The  great  fortune  of  celebrating  one's  twenty-fifth  anni- 
versary of  service  to  the  great  cause  of  liberating  our  country 
has  fallen  to  the  share  of  few  of  our  fighters,  and  probably 
few  of  us  will  have  the  opportunity  to  once  more  drink  the 
health  of  such  a  teacher  and  standard  bearer  as  you  have  been 
during  these  twenty-five  years  to  the  Russian  youth.  That  is 
why  the  day  of  your  and  our  celebration  is  all  the  dearer  to  us. 
We  honor  it  as  the  holiday  of  the  persecuted,  the  oppressed, 
as  the  day  when  the  spiritual  sufferings  of  the  exiles,  the  wan- 
derers will  be  forgotten,  and  the  wounds  from  the  chains  of 
our  comrades  and  friends  now  languishing  in  the  prisons  will 
heal,  at  least  for  a  moment. 

"Like  the  ancient  Christians  who  gathered  in  the  caves  and 
their  secret  temples,  away  from  their  enemies,  to  commem- 
orate their  Great  Teacher,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  souls  in 
the  union  of  love  and  truth,  in  like  manner  do  we  gather  to- 
day to  celebrate  the  day  of  your  anniversary,  in  order  to  find 
in  close  brotherly  union  that  strength,  that  might  which  has 
inspired  you  for  twenty-five  years  in  your  relentless  struggle 
against  age-long  injustice.  We  gather  to  feel  the  fire  which, 
even  when  you  were  away  from  the  country,  has  warmed  your 
heart  with  infinite  love  for  her,  to  find  in  you  the  source  of 
the  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  our  cause,  from  which  you 
have  been  drawing  your  invincible  strength. 

"We  would  have  to  say  very  much  in  order  to  fully  express 
all  that  you  have  done  for  the  cause  which  you  are  serving  and 
for  us  whom  you  have  taught;  but  even  then  our  modest  let- 
ter will  not  have  expressed  all  our  gratitude,  our  thankfulness 
and  love  for  the  one  whose  'Historic  Letters'  have  educated 
a  whole  generation,  whose  mighty  clarion  call  'Forward'  has 
waked  up  Russia  and  has  mobilized  an  army  of  her  best  sons 
for  the  work  of  liberating  the  laboring  masses. 

"Your  path  during  the  last  twenty-five  years  has  not  been 
strewn   with   laurel   and   orange   blossoms ;   it   has   been   cov- 


184  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

ered  with  the  blood  of  your  friends,  but  it  has  not  frightened 
and  will  not  frighten  those  in  whose  hearts  your  voice  has 
aroused  love  for  the  oppressed  brethren,  whose  souls  it  forti- 
fied in  the  bloody  struggle,  whose  intellect  it  awakened  to  the 
realization  of  the  truth.  Every  day  the  ranks  of  the  Russian 
fighters  see  changes,  thousands  of  them  have  already  given 
their  lives  in  the  gallant  fight,  but  in  the  new  ranks  waves 
the  same  banner  that  was  raised  by  your  brave  hand  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  and  the  ideal  which  you  implanted  in  the 
depths  of  our  souls  will  not  die. 

"The  friend  of  the  people,  the  enemy,  of  its  enemies  is 
dear  to  all  honest  Russians,  but  you  are  also  dear  to  us  be- 
cause you  have  been  our  indefatigable  teacher,  our  educator, 
our  loving  friend  and  instructor. 

"And  many  generations  will  honor  your  name  among  those 
of  their  favorite  teachers,  of  whom  you,  above  any  one  else, 
can  by  right  say,  in  the  words  of  the  poet: 

"  'I  have  erected  for  myself  a  monument 
Which  is  not  the  handiwork  of  man.' 

"The  time  will  come  when  a  hand-made  monument  will 
be  erected  for  the  fighter  for  Liberty  and  Truth  and  the  Dis- 
seminator of  the  ideas  of  Love  and  Brotherhood  in  the  same 
place  where  the  gallows  stand  now. 

"  Tt  is  only  a  pity  that  that  wonderful  time 
Neither  you  nor  I  will  live  to  see.' 

"Let,  therefore,  now  at  least,  our  great  love  for  you,  our 
profound  gratitude  and  boundless  reverence  serve  as  a  slight 
compensation  for  your  many  years  of  hard  labor ;  may  that 
at  least  partly  compensate  you  for  your  losses  in  life,  may 
our  feeble  voice  of  greeting  sent  from  the  homeland  which 
you  love  so  dearly,  may  this  voice  at  least  somewhat  warm 
your  noble  soul  languishing  in  exile,  where  even  the  tropical 
heat  cannot  replace  the  mild  sunshine  of  our  own  rough 
climate. 

"Long  live  the  best  of  the  friends  of  the  Russian  people!" 


Peter  Lavrovitch  Lavrov  185 

Here  is  the  answer  of  Peter  Lavrov: 

"To  my  Dear  Friends  in  the  Far-Away  Fatherland : 

"Your  message  of  greeting  has  touched  me  profoundly. 
I  have  not  seen  any  one  of  you  and  doubt  whether  I  ever  will. 
But  you  are  to  me  the  representatives  of  that  Fatherland 
which  always  stands  out  before  me  as  the  goal  of  my  activities, 
you  are  the  representatives  of  that  portion  of  the  Russian 
youth  which  alone  has  the  power  through  its  activities  and 
its  energy  to  win  for  our  country  a  better  future.  That  is 
why  you  are  always  near  and  dear  to  me.  I  feel  that  in  every 
one  of  you  beats  the  heart  of  a  comrade  and  sympathizer  for 
all  that  we  are  attempting  to  do  here.  I  am  getting  old  and 
my  future  is  already  fatally  limited  within  the  confines  of  a 
few  years.  But  before  you  the  future  lies  wide  open :  not 
the  future  for  the  enjoyment  of  life,  not  the  future  of  tran- 
quility, but  the  future  of  hard,  persistent,  relentless  struggle 
against  a  dangerous  foe.  And  many  of  you  have  already  ex- 
perienced the  hardships  of  this  struggle.  Of  the  two  mes- 
sages which  I  received  from  your  remote  town,  and  both  of 
which  are  very  dear  to  me,  one  was  written  within  the  prison 
walls.  I  hope  that  these  lines  will  reach  both  groups  who 
have  sent  me  the  message  of  greeting,  despite  the  fact  that 
we  have  not  seen  each  other.  Let  these  lines  once  more 
strengthen  the  ties  of  our  friendship.  We,  emigrants,  know 
well  that  all  that  we  say  and  write  can  have  meaning  only  as 
the  foundation  for  your  work  in  Russia.  It  is  this  alone  that 
gives  our  utterances  their  significance.  Let  us  therefore  con- 
tinue working  for  the  common  cause  in  the  realization  that 
on  the  banks  of  the  Volga  River  and  on  the  banks  of  the 
Seine  our  hearts,  young  and  old,  are  beating  with  hatred  for 
the  same  foes,  are  beating  with  equal  determination  to  at- 
tain the  common  aim. 

"Accept  the  gratitude  and  greetings  of  an  old  comrade  who 
embraces  you  all  like  brothers." 


186  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

4 '  "■     V3UR  years  before  his  death  I  visited,"  said  Tchaykov- 
■H      sky,  "that  'grand  old  man'  of  the  Russian  Revolu- 

-"-  tionary  movement,  who  lived  in  the  street  of  St. 
Jacques,  in  a  small  room,  very  high  up  in  a  tall  building.  The 
room  was  crowded  with  books  from  top  to  bottom. 

"The  mild  breeze  blowing  from  the  Seine  over  the  Latin 
Quarter,  and  a  few  minutes'  walk  through  a  sun-lit  court- 
yard brought  me  to  a  poor  stairway  which  led  to  the  attic 
room  occupied  by  Lavrov.  For  the  first  time  I  met  a  Russian 
revolutionist  who  had  safely  reached  a  healthy,  vigorous  and 
quiet  old  age.  After  having  spent  thirty  years  in  exile,  he  not 
only  remained  true  to  his  former  ideals,  but  continued  indefa- 
tigably  to  spread  them." 

The  last  years  of  Lavrov's  life  were  almost  exclusively  devoted 
to  scientific  work.  His  great  work,  "An  Experiment  on  a 
History  of  Modern  Thought,"  remained  unfinished.  The  main 
principles  of  his  views  on  sociology  he  summarized  in  his 
work,  "The  Problems  of  an  Interpretation  of  History.  A 
Project  of  an  Introduction  to  a  Study  of  the  Evolution  of 
Human  Thought."  His  book  appeared  in  Moscow  in  1898, 
under  the  nom  de  plume  S.  S..  Arnoldi.  Lavrov's  literary 
works  are  voluminous,  but  until  recently  only  a  few  of  his 
works  were  published  in  Russia.  Likewise,  there  are  numer- 
ous works  devoted  to  the  explanation  and  criticism  of  Lavrov's 
philosophic  system. 

P.  L.  Lavrov  died  in  Paris,  in  1900,  at  the  age  of  77.  His 
funeral  was  an  unusually  solemn  and  grand  procession,  in 
which  tens  of  thousands  of  people  of  all  nationalities  took 
part,  and  which  was  attended  by  the  representatives  of  all 
Socialist  parties  and  societies  the  world  over. 


CHAPTER  III 

Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin 

PRINCE  PETER  KROPOTKIN  was  born  in  an  old 
aristocratic  quarter  of  Moscow,  in  1842,  the  son  of  a 
prince,  a  landed  proprietor  possessing  vast  estates  and 
arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  over  1,200  serfs.  He  was  born  to 
all  the  traditions  of  a  nobleman's  life,  the  ease,  the  luxury, 
the  tinsel  glitter.  A  mother's  love  he  knew  only  until  he  was 
three  and  a  half  years  old.  After  this  his  father's  serfs,  in 
memory  of  the  mother,  secretly  bestowed  on  him  and  his 
brother  Alexander,  scarcely  a  year  and  a  half  older,  the  love 
which  little  children  must  have  to  thrive. 

A  comely  little  lad,  when  he  was  eight  years  old  he  com- 
pletely took  Emporer  Nicholas'  fancy  at  a  costume  ball,  given 
in  honor  of  the  Imperial  family.  As  he  says  in  his  "Memoirs 
of  a  Revolutionist,"  "I  was  told  later  on  that  Nicholas  I,  who 
was  always  fond  of  barrack  jokes,  took  me  by  the  arm  and, 
leading  me  to  Marie  Alexandrovna  (the  wife  of  the  heir  to  the 
throne),  who  was  then  expecting  her  third  child,  said  in  his 
military  way,  "That  is  the  sort  of  boy  you  must  bring  me." 
The  little  prince  was  treated  to  sweets  and  later  in  the  evening 
fell  asleep  with  his  head  in  the  lap  of  the  Crown  Princess,  who 
did  not  leave  her  chair  until  the  ball  was  over.  When  the 
time  came  to  take  the  little  fellow  home,  his  family  told  him 
joyously  that  he  had  been  made  a  candidate  for  the  corps  of 
pages.  His  father  saw  visions  of  a  brilliant  court  career  for 
his  son. 

This  boy's  environment  was  rich  soil  for  the  blossoming  of 
a  real  aristocrat,  but  the  stories  of  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion told  him  by  his  French  tutor  and  a  little  later  the  influ- 
ence of  his  Russian  teacher,  as  well  as  the  serious  literature  ol 
that  time,  which  he  had  begun  to  read  while  still  very  young, 
laid  the  cornerstone  of  a  life  marked  by  love  for  his  fellow- 
men.  When  he  was  twelve  years  old  he  dropped  his  title,  and 
signed  his  name  P.  Kropotkin  to  his  first  literary  attempts. 
This  signature  he  has  since  retained. 


188  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

The  arbitrary  treatment  of  the  serfs  on  his  father's  estates 
and  the  stories  he  heard  of  the  bestial  brutality  of  other  land- 
owners awakened  in  him  an  intense  sympathy  for  these  slaves, 
who  were  flogged  for  a  minor  misdeed,  bought,  sold,  ex- 
changed for  hunting  dogs,  lost  at  a  game  of  cards,  forced  to 
marry  to  increase  the  landowner's  riches  in  souls,  used  and 
abused  in  ways  that  beggar  description. 

When  he  was  nearly  fifteen  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the  corps 
of  pages  and  he  had  to  enter  this  military  school  against  his 
inclination.  By  this  time  he  had  acquired  definite  literary 
tastes,  and  was  seriously  interested  in  history.  The  regula- 
tions and  atmosphere  of  the  military  school  roused  the  rebel 
in  him  and  brought  him  into  open  conflict  with  the  despotic 
master  of  the  school,  but  being  naturally  studious  he  concen- 
trated on  learning  German  and,  under  the  influence  of  his 
brother  Alexander,  he  read  as  much  of  the  philosophic  and 
scientific  literature  as  he  could  obtain.  He  followed  his 
natural  bent  in  the  study  of  mathematics,  physics  and  astron- 
omy. However,  he  was  not  above  the  pranks  students  of  that 
age  often  indulge  in,  and  when  it  was  found  necessary  to 
teach  the  drawing  teacher  a  lesson,  he  participated  in  an  esca- 
pade that  brought  him  ten  days  in  a  cell,  as  leader  of  the  class. 

During  a  summer  vacation  he  wrote  up  a  peasants'  fair 
statistically.  To  get  the  necessary  data  he  had  to  mingle 
freely  with  them,  ask  many  questions  and  even  take  tea  in 
the  restaurant  with  some  of  them.  "Oh,  horror,  if  my  father 
had  learned  that !"  says  Prince  Kropotkin  in  his  "Memoirs  of 
a  Revolutionist,"  recalling  the  incident.  This  contact  brought 
him  closer  to  these  overburdened  and  overtaxed  souls,  and 
stood  him  in  good  stead  much  later  when  he  went  about  among 
the  peasants  teaching  socialism. 

Ironical  though  it  be,  it  was  in  the  ultra-fashionable  St. 
Petersburg  home  of  one  of  his  conservative  relatives  that  he 
first  became  imbued  with  revolutionary  ideas.  His  cousin  was 
somehow  getting  copies  of  a  publication  printed  in  London  by 
the  great  Russian  exile  Hertzen,  and  together  they  read  scath- 
ing criticisms  of  the  deeds  of  Russia's  autocracy.  It  was  then 
when  he  first  be°:an  to  think  of  a  cure  for  the  evils  of  mis- 


PRIN'CE  PETER  KROPOTKIX 


190  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

government  in  Russia,  and  it  was  a  constitutional  monarchy 
he  considered  then  the  panacea. 

Just  at  the  same  time  that  the  question  of  slavery  was 
brewing  trouble  between  North  and  South  in  this  country,  the 
liberal  elements  in  Russia  were  agitating  for  the  abolition  of 
serfdom,  against  powerful  opposition.  It  was  1861  when 
Alexander  II,  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  signed  the  manifesto 
granting  freedom  to  the  serfs,  with  overburdening  obligations 
for  the  liberated  peasants. 

Kropotkin,  in  his  "Memoirs  of  a  Revolutionist,"  tells  an 
episode  to  show  what  emancipation  meant  for  the  peasants. 
It  is  interesting  to  read  his  story  in  full,  to  see  what  the  peas- 
antry meant  for  this  prince. 

"Eleven  years  after  that  memorable  time,"  says  Kropotkin, 
"I  went  to  the  Tambov  estate,  which  I  had  inherited  from  my 
father.  I  stayed  there  for  a  few  weeks,  and  on  the  evening  of 
my  departure  our  village  priest— an  intelligent  man  of  inde- 
pendent opinions,  such  as  one  meets  occasionally  in  our  south- 
ern provinces — went  out  for  a  walk  round  the  village.  The 
sunset  was  glorious ;  a  balmy  air  came  from  the  prairies.  He 
found  a  middle-aged  peasant — Anton  Savelieff — sitting  on  a 
small  eminence  outside  the  village  and  reading  a  book  of 
psalms.  The  peasant  hardly  knew  how  to  spell,  in  Old  Sla- 
vonic, and  often  he  would  read  a  book  from  the  last  page, 
turning  the  pages  backward ;  it  was  the  process  of  reading 
which  he  liked  most,  and  then  a  word  would  strike  him,  and 
its  repetition  pleased  him.  He  was  reading  now  a  psalm  of 
which  each  verse  began  with  the  word  'rejoice.' 

"  'What  are  you  reading?'  he  was  asked. 

"  'Well,  father,  I  will  tell  you,'  was  his  reply.  'Fourteen 
years  ago  the  old  prince  came  here.  It  was  in  the  winter.  I 
had  just  returned  home,  almost  frozen.  A  snowstorm  was 
raging.  I  had  scarcely  begun  undressing,  when  we  heard  a 
knock  at  the  window ;  it  was  the  elder,  who  was  shouting, 
"Go  to  the  prince !  He  wants  you !"  We  all — my  wife  and 
our  children — were  thunderstruck.  "What  can  he  want  of 
you  ?"  my  wife  cried,  in  alarm.  I  signed  myself  with  the  cross 
and  went ;  the  snowstorm  almost  blinded  me  as  I  crossed  the 


Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin  191 

bridge.  Well,  it  ended  all  right.  The  old  prince  was  taking 
his  afternoon  sleep,  and  when  he  woke  up  he  asked  me  if  I 
knew  plastering  work,  and  only  told  me,  "Come  tomorrow  to 
repair  the  plaster  in  that  room."  So  I  went  home  quite  happy, 
and  when  I  came  to  the  bridge  I  found  my  wife  standing  there. 
She  had  stood  there  all  the  time  in  the  snowstorm,  with  the 
baby  in  her  arms,  waiting  for  me.  "What  has  happened. 
Savelich?"  she  cried.  "Well,"  I  said,  "no  harm;  he  only  asked 
me  to  make  some  repairs."  That,  father,  was  under  the  old 
prince.  And  now,  the  young  prince  came  here  the  other  day. 
1  went  to  see  him,  and  I  found  him  in  the  garden,  at  the  tea 
table,  in  the  shadow  of  the  house;  you,  father,  sat  with  him, 
?nd  the  elder  of  the  canton,  with  his  mayor's  chain  upon  his 
breast.  "Will  you  have  tea,  Savelich?"  he  asked  me.  "Take 
a  chair.  Peter  GrigoriefF" — he  says  that  to  the  old  one — "give 
us  one  more  chair."  And  Peter  Grigorieft" — you  know  what  a 
terror  for  us  he  was  when  he  was  the  manager  of  the  old 
prince — brought  the  chair,  and  we  all  sat  around  the  tea  table, 
talking,  and  he  poured  out  tea  for  all  of  us.  Well,  now,  father, 
the  evening  is  so  beautiful,  the  balm  comes  from  the  prairies, 
and  I  sit  and  read,  "Rejoice!  Rejoice!"'" 

A  few  months  after  Alexander  II  had  become  almost  a 
demigod  to  his  many  millions  of  subjects — for  had  he  not  freed 
the  serfs ! — Prince  Kropotkin,  becoming  sergeant  of  the  corps 
of  pages,  became  the  Emperor's  page  de  chambre.  As  body- 
guard of  the  Emperor  at  all  important  functions  and  also  on 
holidays,  he  had  to  spend  a  great  part  of  his  time  at  Court. 
His  intimacy  with  Court  life  only  taught  him  the  shams  and 
the  frailties  of  the  institution  of  kings.  He  began  an  admirer 
of  the  liberator  of  the  serfs,  he  ended  by  knowing  him  for  a 
weak-willed  despot.  And  when  his  time  at  Court  was  up,  not 
having  the  money  to  enter  a  university — his  father  would  only 
help  him  in  a  military  career — he  went  far  from  Court  life  and 
the  gay  life  of  the  aristocracy. 

His  earl}*  scientific  interests  had  grown  with  him,  and  free 
to  choose  his  field  of  service  as  an  officer,  he  chose  to  go  way 
ofif  to  East  Siberia  so  that  he  could  studv  the  vegetation,  the 


192  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

physiography,  and  perhaps  assist  in  carrying  out  the  reforms 
he  still  hoped  to  see  born. 

He  himself  says  that  the  five  years  he  spent  in  Siberia  were 
for  him  a  liberal  education  in  life  and  human  character.  Ac- 
cording to  his  "Memoirs,"  he  "was  brought  into  contact  with 
men  of  all  descriptions :  the  best  and  the  worst ;  those  who 
stood  at  the  top  of  society  and  those  who  vegetated  at  the  very 
bottom — the  tramps  and  the  so-called  incorrigible  criminals." 
Here  he  really  could  study  the  daily  life  of  the  peasant  and  he 
realized  how  little  the  central  administration  could  do  for  the 
Siberian  peasant,  even  if  it  were  actuated  by  most  excellent 
motives. 

In  the  course  of  his  activities  in  East  Siberia  Kropotkin 
helped  to  draw  up  plans  for  the  reform  of  the  prison  and  exile 
S}'stem  and  for  municipal  self-government.  By  the  time  these 
were  completed  and  sent  to  the  Capital,  the  people  of  Russian 
Poland  had  risen  in  an  effort  to  free  themselves  and  had  been 
punished  by  wholesale  hangings  and  transportations  to  the 
remotest  corners  of  Siberia.  A  general  reaction  had  set  in.  It 
had  become  a  crime  even  to  breathe  the  word  "reform,"  and 
so  Kropotkin's  projects  never  saw  light. 

Kropotkin  then  assisted  in  a  scheme  to  colonize  the  banks 
of  the  Amur  River,  in  the  course  of  which  he  made  an  ex- 
tremely perilous  trip  to  save  the  people  on  the  lower  Amur 
from  famine. 

Disguised  as  a  merchant,  not  to  arouse  unnecessarily  the 
suspicions  of  the  Chinese,  he  went  with  a  caravan  into  Man- 
churia and  explored  a  region  never  before  visited  by  a  Euro- 
pean. 

As  military  attache  to  the  governor-general  for  Cossack 
affairs,  he  undertook  to  find  out  why  the  Usuri  Cossacks  had 
to  be  helped  by  the  government  every  winter  to  keep  them 
from  starvation.  His  suggested  remedies  were  approved  and 
he  was  rewarded  for  his  efforts,  but,  as  he  says,  "the  practical 
realization  of  the  measures  went  into  the  hands  of  some  old 
drunkard,  who  would  squander  the  money  and  pitilessly  flog 
the  unfortunate  Cossacks  for  the  purpose  of  converting  them 
into  good  agriculturists.    And  thus  it  went  on  in  all  directions, 


Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin  193 

beginning  with  the  Winter  Palace  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  end- 
ing with  the  Usuri  and  Kamchatka." 

However,  his  experience  in  Siberia  taught  him  how  little 
he  could  do  for  the  masses  of  the  people  if  he  had  to  work 
through  the  powers  that  ruled  at  St.  Petersburg.  The  methods 
used  against  a  number  of  Polish  exiles  in  Siberia,  who  broke 
out  in  revolt,  awakened  Kropotkin  to  the  fact  that  as  an  officer 
of  the  Russian  government  he  was  not  true  to  himself.  He 
resigned  and  returned  to  St.  Petersburg. 

In  St.  Petersburg  he  entered  the  university  and  sat  beside 
boys  many  years  younger.  From  his  observations  in  orDeria 
he  had  concluded  that  the  existing  maps  of  Northern  Asia 
were  all  wrong  and  he  decided  to  study  the  question  to  a  solu- 
tion. After  more  than  two  years  intensive  study  he  discov- 
ered that  the  main  structural  lines  of  Asia  do  not  extend  north 
and  south  or  west  and  east,  but  run  from  the  southwest  to  the 
northeast.  He  considered  this  discovery  his  greatest  contribu- 
tion to  science. 

Then  followed  a  tour  of  Finland  and  Sweden  in  the  inter- 
est of  science,  but  the  miserable  conditions  of  the  peasantry 
in  both  countries  drove  the  joy  of  scientific  discovery  from  his 
soul. 

"But  what  right  had  I  to  these  highest  joys,"  says  Kropot- 
kin in  his  "Memoirs,"  "when  all  around  me  was  nothing  but 
misery  and  struggle  for  a  mouldy  bit  of  bread ;  when  whatsn- 
ever  I  should  spend  to  enable  me  to  live  in  that  world  of  higher 
emotions  must  needs  be  taken  from  the  very  mouths  of  those 
who  grew  the  wheat  and  had  not  bread  enough  for  their  chil- 
dren? From  somebody's  mouth  it  must  be  taken,  because  the 
aggregate  production  of  mankind  remains  still  so  low." 

In  the  meantime  Alexander  II,  in  constant  fear  of  attempts 
on  his  life,  had  put  himself  completely  under  the  control  of  a 
dishonest,  cruel,  sinister  group.  All  freedom  of  expression  had 
been  completely  stilled,  the  deepest  thinkers,  the  best  writers 
were  in  the  fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  or  in  exile,  and 
no  man  dared  to  associate  with  another  known  to  have  ever 
entertained  a  radical  thought.  But  as  in  youth  there  is  daring, 
so  the  young  men  in  the  twenties  and  under,  and  the  young 


194  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

women,  were  secretly  spreading  their  ideals.  The  young' 
women,  in  many  cases,  left  their  fine  homes  and  undertook 
work,  no  matter  how  dangerous  or  lowly,  if  only  they  could 
spread  knowledge  among  the  masses.  Of  the  women,  Kropot- 
kin  says :  "They  have  conquered  their  rights  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  word."  So  his  early  impressions  made  him  a  feminist 
for  life. 

v^In  1872  he  went  to  Switzerland  and  joined  the  Zurich  sec- 
tion of  the  International  Workingmen's  Association.  To  get 
into  closer  touch  with  the  daily  life  of  the  workers  he  went  to 
Geneva,  a  great  center  of  the  International  socialist  move- 
ment. Here  every  evening,  sitting  in  the  hall  where  they  met, 
he  learned  what  faith  these  toilers  had  in  the  coming  brother- 
hood of  man.  Seeing  how  badly  in  need  they  were  of  really 
disinterested  helpers — to  help  spread  the  ideal — he  decided  to 
cast  in  his  lot  with  them. 

In  a  brief  time  spent  among  the  watchmakers  in  the  Jura 
Mountains  he  came  into  close  touch  with  a  number  of  refugees 
of  the  French  Commune.  Reading,  talking,  discussing,  listen- 
ing, he  came  away  from  the  watchmakers  in  these  mountains 
with  his  views  definitely  settled.  It  was  his  duty  to  cast  his 
lot  in  with  the  workers. 

On  his  return  to  St.  Petersburg  he  joined  a  circle  called  the 
Circle  of  Tchaykovsky,  the  members  of  which  purposed 
spreading  their  revolutionary  ideas  among  the  peasants  and 
the  workers  in  the  towns.  Kropotkin  was  particularly  inter- 
ested in  the  people  who  worked  in  the  cotton  factories,  and  in 
the  weavers.  Many  an  evening  after  a  dinner  in  a  fine  man- 
sion or  with  a  friend  in  the  Winter  Palace,  he  would  put  on  the 
coarse  peasant  clothes,  the  cotton  shirt,  the  sheepskin,  the 
peasant  boots  and  hurry  to  some  poor  quarter  of  the  city  to 
meet  his  worker  friends.  And  it  was  an  untrustworthy 
weaver,  who,  to  save  himself,  disclosed  the  identity  of  this 
prince  who  was  giving  himself  whole-heartedly  to  the  cause  of 
the  workers. 

i  He  was  arrested  and  placed  in  a  damp,  dark  cell  of  the 
dreaded  prison  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  on  the  second  day  of 
the  new  year,  1874.    The  inactivity  and  the  silence  imposed  on 


Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin  195 

him  were  the  most  difficult  to  bear,  but  his  brother  Alexander 
worked  hard  and  got  several  scientific  societies  to  address  an 
appeal  to  the  Emperor.  This  resulted  in  Kropotkin  being 
given  permission  to  finish  his  book  on  the  glacial  period,  in 
prison. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  silence  of  that  prison  has  broken 
clown  many  a  mind.  Courageous,  Kropotkin  worked  on  until 
the  news  of  his  brother's  arrest  almost  broke  his  spirit. 
In  this  prison  he  heard  a  poor  peasant,  in  the  cell  beneath 
him,  go  insane,  for  want  of  his  normal  activity.  This  poor 
man's  crime  had  been  that  he  had  listened  to  the  socialists. 

/Under  the  strain  of  prison  life,  Kropotkin's  health  became 
so  broken  before  his  second  year  of  confinement  was  over 
that  his  sister  begged  to  have  him  transferred  to  the  military 
hospital  of  the  prison.  It  was  from  this  military  hospital  that 
he  made  the  escape  that  transcends  all  the  thrilling  imaginings 
of  playwrights  and  scenario  writers.  His  own  detailed  ac- 
count of  it  in  his  "Memoirs  of  a  Revolutionist"  makes  one 
tremble  with  emotion.  He  tells  how  at  the  sound  of  a  violin 
played  in  a  little  house  opposite  the  prison,  and  the  rumble  of 
a  carriage — signals  prearranged  by  his  revolutionary  friends — 
he  made  a  dash  for  the  gate,  pursued  by  the  guards,  soldiers 
and  some  peasants  who  had  been  unloading  wood  in  the 
prison  yard.  He  tells  how  he  threw  himself  into  the  waiting 
carriage,  was  received  by  a  friend  in  disguise,  and  how  his 
friend's  military  cap  as  they  went  by  the  door  of  a  public 
house  brought  the  salute  from  two  gendarmes.  The  only 
soldier  on  guard  who  would  have  been  able  to  stop  him  had 
been  engaged  in  "scientific"  conversation  by  another  friend, 
whose  waggish  tale  of  the  tail  possessed  by  a  parasite  of  the 
human  body  held  the  soldier  so  spellbound  that  Kropotkin 
got  safely  into  the  carriage.  He  tells  how  they  spent  the  even- 
ing dining  in  a  private  room  of  one  of  St.  Petersburg's  select 
restaurants,  while  the  city  was  turned  upside  down  in  the 
hunt  for  him,  how  he  finally  reached  Sweden  and  from  there 
ssiled  for  England  under  the  "Union  Jack."  and  he  adds :  "I 
greeted  that  flag  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart." 

In  England,  under  an  assumed  name,  he  fared  meagerly  on 


196  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

what  he  earned  advising  about  the  science  column  for  one 
publication,  "Nature,"  and  writing  paragraphs  on  Russian 
geographical  explorations  for  the  "Times."  It  was  in  the  of- 
fice of  "Nature"  that  the  sub-editor  handed  him  two  of  his 
own  scientific  volumes,  asking  him  to  review  them  for  the 
paper.  This  forced  him  to  disclose  his  identity,  for,  as  he 
says  in  his  "Memoirs,"  "I  could  not  praise  them  because  they 
were  mine,  and  I  could  not  be  too  sharp  on  the  author  as  I 
held  the  views  expressed  in  them." 

Later  finding  some  permanent  scientific  work  that  did  not 
necessitate  his  staying  in  England,  he  went  to  Switzerland. 
Here,  surrounded  by  remarkable  men,  exiles  from  France, 
Italy,  Germany  and  Spain,  he  threw  himself  heart  and  soul 
into  the  work  of  spreading  his  beliefs.  He  distributed  litera- 
ture and  went  about  lecturing  on  socialism. 

While  attending  a  congress  in  Belgium  he  was  saved  by  his 
comrades  from  being  taken  by  the  police  for  registering  under 
an  assumed  name  at  the  hotel.  The  Belgian  police  would,  in 
all  likelihood,  have  handed  him  over  to  Russia.  His  friends 
put  him  aboard  ship  for  England,  without  even  permitting  him 
to  return  to  his  room. 

After  a  brief  stay  in  England,  the  revived  activity  in  the 
labor  movement  in  Paris  lured  him  there.  Here  he  helped  to 
organize  the  first  socialist  groups.  And  here  he  again  escaped 
arrest,  but  this  time  through  a  very  fortunate  error  on  the  part 
of  the  police  themselves. 

It  so  happened  that,  with  rapid  succession,  attempts  were 
made  on  the  lives  of  the  German  Emperor,  the  King  of  Spain 
and  the  King  of  Italy.  The  governments  of  Europe  immedi- 
ately decided  that  the  plots  had  been  hatched  by  the  political 
refugees  in  Switzerland,  and  the  Swiss  Government  was  called 
to  account  for  harboring  so  many  of  these  refugees.  Switzerland 
responded  by  suppressing  radical  publications  and  deporting 
all  the  most  active  leaders  of  the  workers'  movement.  Kropot- 
kin  decided  to  go  to  Switzerland,  where  he  undertook  to  edit 
a  paper  for  the  party,  "La  Revolte."  He  had  to  do  most  of 
the  writing  himself,  but  he  discussed  every  article  with  his 
wife,  who  was  a  severe  critic.     For  all  that  he  found  time  to 


Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin  197 

assist  in  the  writing  of  an  excellent  detailed  geography  of  the 
Russian  dominions  in  Asia. 

In  the  meantime  the  revolutionists  in  Russia,  preaching 
and  spreading  the  socialist  doctrines  through  the  land,  calling 
on  the  peasants  and  the  workers  to  rebel  against  the  unjust 
economic  conditions,  but  not  seeming  anxious  to  make  any 
definite  plans  for  revolution,  were  receiving  outrageous  sen- 
tences. They  who  wanted  only  a  chance  to  live  with  the 
peasants  and  the  workers  so  as  to  teach  them,  they  who  wanted 
only  to  be  of  help  to  the  masses  were  being  hanged,  were 
being  sentenced  to  hard  labor  in  the  mines  of  Siberia  for  ten 
and  twelve  years,  to  be  followed  by  lifelong  exile  in  some  far- 
away barren  spot.  Some  were  locked  up  in  prisons  so  horrible 
that  a  few  months  drove  them  into  insanity.  Finally  some  of 
their  comrades  rose  in  self-defense  and  sent  a  number  of 
bureaucrats  out  of  existence,  with  bombs.  In  March,  1881, 
Alexander  II  himself  paid  for  the  many  lives  he  had  pitilessly 
taken. 

To  guard  the  life  of  the  new  Tzar,  Alexander  III,  and  the 
old  bureaucratic  institutions,  many  anti-revolutionary  organi- 
zations came  into  existence.  One,  called  the  Holy  League,  had 
for  its  aim  the  killing  of  all  the  refugees  who,  according  to 
them,  had  planned  the  late  conspiracies.  Kropotkin  was 
marked  for  one  of  these,  although  he  had  no  hand  in  any 
of  these  assassinations. 

A  few  months  after  the  death  of  Alexander  II,  he  was  ex- 
pelled from  Switzerland  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  Russian 
police.  He  and  his  wife  went  to  France.  Warned,  in  all  its 
details,  through  a  reliable  source,  of  the  death  sentence  passed 
upon  him  by  the  Holy  League,  he  gave  the  facts  to  the 
Geneva  correspondent  of  the  "Times,"  asking  him  to  print 
the  story  if  anything  should  happen  to  him.  He  also  put  a 
note  to  the  same  effect  in  "La  Revoke. " 

After  another  year  in  England  he  returned  to  France,  only 
to  be  immediately  surrounded  by  Russian  spies  and  prying 
French  police. 

Towards  the  end  of  1882  the  miserable  conditions  existing 
among  the  silk  weavers  in  and  about  Lyons  had  become  un- 


198  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

bearable.  Little  children  were  starving,  and  the  workers, 
roused  to  fury,  dynamited  a  public  building  and  a  cafe  fre- 
quented by  those  better  off  and  doing  nothing  to  relieve  the 
situation.  Kropotkin,  who  was  known  to  have  lectured  to  the 
weavers,  was  arrested  with  about  sixty  other  men.  In  spite 
of  no  incriminating  evidence,  he  was  sentenced  to  five  years' 
imprisonment.  An  appeal,  signed  by  such  men  as  Herbert 
Spencer,  Victor  Hugo,  Swinburne,  bore  no  fruit.  While  in 
this  prison  he  worked  hard  upon  articles  for  the  "Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica"  and  the  "Nineteenth  Century."  He  also 
thought  much  upon  the  evils  of  the  prison  system.  He  says 
in  his  "Memoirs" :  "During  my  sojourn  at  Lyons  I  began  to 
realize  the  awfully  demoralizing  influence  of  the  prisons  upon 
the  prisoners,  which  brought  me  later  to  condemn  uncondi- 
tionally the  whole  institution." 

Of  the  numbers  of  children  he  saw  who  were  taken  every 
day  to  the  prison  yard  to  "beat  out  the  silk  cocoons  to 
obtain  floss  silk,"  he  says :  "Flocks  of  children  are  under- 
fed —  the  shadows  of  children  —  I  often  watched  them 
from  my  window.  Anaemia  was  plainly  written  on  all  the 
little  faces  and  manifest  in  their  thin,  shivering  bodies ;  and 
all  day  long — not  only  in  the  dormitories,  but  even  in  the 
yards,  in  the  full  light  of  the  sun — they  pursued  their  debilitat- 
ing practices.  What  will  become  of  them  after  they  have 
passed  through  that  schooling  and  come  out  with  their  health 
ruined,  their  will  annihilated,  their  energy  reduced?  Anaemia, 
with  its  diminished  energy,  its  unwillingness  to  work,  its  en- 
feebled will,  weakened  intellect,  and  perverted  imagination,  is 
responsible  for  crime  to  an  infinitely  greater  extent  than 
plethora,  and  it  is  precisely  this  enemy  of  the  human  race 
which  is  bred  in  prison.  And  then — the  teachings  which  these 
children  receive  in  their  surroundings !  Mere  isolation,  even 
if  it  were  rigorously  carried  out — and  it  cannot  be — would  be 
of  little  avail ;  the  whole  atmosphere  of  every  prison  is  an 
atmosphere  of  glorification  of  that  sort  of  gambling  in  "clever 
strokes"  which  constitutes  the  very  essence  of  theft,  swindling, 
and  all  sorts  of  similar  anti-social  deeds.     Whole  generations 


Peter  Alexeyevich  Kropotkin  199 

of  future  criminals  are  bred  in  these  nurseries,  which  the  state 
supports  and  which  society  tolerates,  simply  because  it  does 
not  want  to  hear  its  own  diseases  spoken  of  and  dissected." 
In  1885  when  almost  all  his  comrades  had  been  set  free  and 
the  clamor  for  Kropotkin's  release,  in  the  press  and  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  was  daily  growing  louder,  the  French 
Prime  Minister,  M.  Freycinet,  openly  said  in  the  Chamber 
that  "diplomatic  difficulties  stood  in  the  way  of  Kropotkin's 
release."  Alexander  III  did  not  want  him  released.  Finally, 
in  January,  1886,  he  was  set  free,  and  he  and  his  wife  went  to 
Paris  to  live. 

Finding  it  necessary  to  leave  Paris  once  more,  to  escape 
being  expelled  (another  concession  to  the  pro-Russian  press), 
he  went  to  London  once  more.  Here  he  was  asked  to  lecture 
on  socialism  and  prisons.  So  he  traveled  through  every  large 
town  of  England  and  Scotland,  spending  one  night  in  a  man- 
sion (for  the  middle  classes  were  anxiously  interested  in  the 
message  he  brought)  and  the  next  in  the  overcrowded  home  of 
some  worker. 

He  started  a  monthly  called  "Freedom."  He  wrote  articles 
explaining  his  theory  of  life.  In  contradiction  to  all  the  con- 
clusions drawn  from  Darwin's  formula,  the  "struggle  for  exist- 
ence," Kropotkin  decided  that  "mutual  aid"  is  as  much  a  law 
of  nature  as  "mutual  struggle."  He  gave  expression  to  this 
idea  in  the  "Nineteenth  Century,"  in  his  articles,  "Mutual  Aid 
Among  Animals,"  "Among  Savages,"  "Among  Barbarians," 
"In  the  Mediaeval  City"  and  "Amongst  Ourselves."  Several 
years  later  he  wrote  "Mutual  Aid  Among  Men." 

After  the  Revolution  of  March,  1917,  Kropotkin  returned  to 
Russia.  He  was  met  with  great  honors,  as  one  of  the  foremost 
fighters  for  liberty  and  democracy.  As  a  sincere  democrat, 
he  has  taken  the  only  stand  possible  in  this  great  war :  with 
the  Allied  democracies — against  the  autocracy  of  Germany. 
Although  a  philosophical  anarchist,  in  theory  repudiating 
every  State  organization,  he  makes  a  definite  distinction  be- 
tween a  democratic  State  and  an  autocratic  State,  and  in  the 
present  conflict,  naturally,  wishes  success  to  the  union  of 
democratic  nations. 


200  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Speaking  at  the  National  Conference  in  Moscow,  in  August, 
1917,  Kropotkin  expressed  clearly  his  attitude  towards  Rus- 
sia's condition  at  that  critical  time :  "In  my  opinion,"  said 
Kropotkin,  "the  Fatherland  and  the  Revolution  are  indivisible. 
The  Fatherland,  having  made  the  Revolution,  must  carry 
it  to  the  end.  Citizens,  we  are  in  a  protracted  war,  the 
most  terrible  months  of  which  are  the  last  months.  Why, 
during  these  last  months  has  not  the  question  been  decided 
as  to  who  shall  conquer  and  who  shall  be  defeated?  If  the 
Germans  should  be  victorious,  the  consequences  would  be  so 
dreadful  for  us  that  it  is  simply  painful  to  speak  of  or  prophesy 
such  things. 

"I  think  that  it  is  not  without  reason  that  all  the  democracies 
of  the  whole  world  have  united  against  Germany,  and  even 
the  democracy  of  China  has  joined,  and  will  help  us  worthily. 
Comrades,  let  us  promise  each  other  that  we  will  not  stand 
divided  into  the  right  and  left.  We  have  but  one  Fatherland, 
and  for  the  whole  of  it  we  must  all  be  ready  to  die,  conserva- 
tive and  radical." 


CHAPTER  IV 
Ekaterina  Constantinovna  Breshko-Breshkovskaya 

THE  name  Breshko-Breshkovskaya,  that  of  the  "Grand- 
mother of  the  Russian  Revolution,"  is  known  the  world 
over.  "Grandmother"  is  now  74  years  old,  but,  just  as 
in  her  youth,  she  is  still  serving  the  great  cause  of  Russia's 
and  the  world's  democracy,  with  all  the  power  of  her  beautiful 
soul. 

We  cannot,  for  want  of  space,  devote  to  Brehsko-Bresh- 
kovskaya  as  many  pages  as  she  deserves.* 

Ekaterina  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  was  born  in  1844,  in  the 
Province  of  Vitebsk.  Her  mother  came  of  a  noble  family. 
Her  father  was  the  son  of  a  Polish  aristocrat.  Speaking  of 
her  father,  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  says: 

"My  father  helped  me  think.  He  was  a  man  of  broad,  lib- 
eral ideas.  We  read  together  many  books  of  science  and 
travel.  Social  science  absorbed  me.  By  16,  I  had  read  much 
of  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and  Diderot,  and  I  knew  by  heart  the 
French  Revolution.  I  was  not  confined  to  Russian,  for  I  spoke 
French  from  babyhood ;  my  German  governess  soon  taught 
me  German,  and  at  that  time  the  world's  best  thought  was 
not  garbled  by  Russian  censorship.  So  trained,  I  could  hardly 
be  called  anTgTTOTaTvFTanatic.'' 

In  the  early  seventies,  Breshkovskaya,  then  26  years  old. 
joined  a  revolutionary  group  in  Kiev  and  traveled  from  town 
to  town  spreading  revolutionary  propaganda.  Later  the  revo- 
lutionists decided  to  reach  the  peasants  and  so  started  the 
famous  movement  "V  Narod" — "To  the  People."  Breshkov- 
skaya joined  this  movement  and  here  is  what  she  say?  about  it : 

"We  put  on  peasant  dress  to  elude  the  police  and  break 
down  the  peasants'  clinging  distrust.     I  used  acid  on  my  face 


♦To  everyone  particularly  interested  in  this  historic  figure  of  the  Russian 
Revolution,  we  mav  recommend  a  book  especially  devoted  to  her:  "The 
Little  Grandmother'of  the  Russian  Revolution."  bj-  Alice  Stone  Blaekwell. 
The  book  has  been  recentlv  published  bv  Little,  Brown  &  Co.  The  story 
of  her  life  is  best  told  bv  herself,  in  the  "Outlook"  of  January  7,  1905, 
and  in  the  Petrograd  mag-azine.  "Neeva,"  Nos.  19-20.  1917.  ExeerDts  from 
the  "Outlook"  are  reprinted  by  courtesy  of  The  Outlook  Co. 


202  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

and  hands ;  I  worked  and  ate  with  the  peasants;  I  learned  their 
speech ;  I  traveled  on  foot,  forging  passports ;  I  lived  'illegally.' 

"By  night  I  did  my  organizing.  You  desire  a  picture?  A 
low  room  with  mud  floor  and  walls.  Rafters  just  over  your 
head  and  a  little  higher  an  arch.  The  room  was  packed  with 
men,  women  and  children.  Two  big  fellows  sat  up  on  the 
high  brick  stove,  with  their  dangling  feet  knocking  occasional 
applause.  These  people  had  been  gathered  by  my  host — a 
brave  peasant  whom  I  picked  out — and  he  in  turn  had  chosen 
only  those  whom  Siberia  could  not  terrify.  When  I  recalled 
their  floggings,  when  I  pointed  to  those  who  had  been 
crippled  for  life,  to  women  whose  husbands  died  under  the 
lash — those  men  would  cry  out  so  fiercely  that  the  three  or 
four  cattle  in  the  next  room  would  begin  to  bellow  loudly 
and  have  to  be  quieted.  Then  I  told  them  they  themselves 
were  to  blame.  They  had  only  the  most  wretched  strips  of 
land.  To  be  free  and  live,  the  people  must  own  the  land. 
From  my  cloak  I  would  bring  a  book  of  fables  written  to 
teach  our  principles  and  stir  the  love  of  freedom.  And  then 
far  into  the  night  the  firelight  showed  a  circle  of  great, 
broad  faces  and  dilated  eyes  staring  with  all  the  reverence 
every  peasant  had  for  that  mysterious  thing — a  book.  These 
books,  twice  as  effective  as  oral  work,  were  printed  in  secrecy, 
at  a  heavy  expense.  But  many  of  us  had  libraries,  jewels, 
costly  gowns  and  furs  to  sell.  And  new  recruits  kept  adding 
to  our  fund.     We  had  no  personal  expenses." 

In  1874  over  two  thousand  of  Russia's  educated  youth 
carried  on  propaganda  among  the  peasants.  The  Government 
made  wholesale  arrests,  and  among  those  arrested  was  Bresh- 
kovskaya.     Here  is  again  her  own  story : 

"In  jail  I  was  led  down  to  the  'Black  Hole.'  As  I  came 
down  two  besotted  wretches  were  stumbling  up.  I  was 
pushed  in,  a  heavy  door  slammed  and  bolts  rattled  in  total 
darkness.  At  once  I  was  sickened  by  the  odor.  I  took  a 
step  forward  and  slipped,  for  the  floor  was  soft  with  filth.  I 
stood  still,  until  badly  sick,  I  sank  down  on  a  pile  of  straw 
and  rags.  A  minute  later  I  was  stung  sharply  back  to  con- 
sciousness,  and   sprang  up   covered  with   vermin.     I   leaned 


E.  K.   BRESHKO-BRESHKOYSKAYA 
The  "Grandmother"  of  the   Russian  Revolution 


204  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

against  the  walls  and  found  them  damp.     So  I  stood  up  all 
night  in  the  middle  of  the  hole.  And  this  was  the  beginning.  .  . . 

"In  1878  we  were  tried.  One  hundred  had  died  or  gone 
insane.  We,  one  hundred  ninety-three  of  us,  were  packed  into 
a  little  hole.  We  nerved  each  other  to  refuse  to  be  tried,  for 
the  trial,  we  knew,  was  to  be  a  farce,  the  jury  allowed  us  by 
law  was  not  to  be  given  us;  we  had  only  a  jury  of  seven,  of 
whom  only  one  was  a  peasant.  .Our  judges  had  been  appointed 
by  the  Tzar.  They  divided  us  into  groups  of  ten  or  fifteen ;  the 
trials  lasted  half  a  year.  \\  hen  my  turn  came,  I  protested 
against  this  farce.  For  this  I  was  at  once  taken  out  and  my 
prison  term  was  lengthened  to  five  years  as  hard-labor  convict 
in  the  mines.  This  is  the  punishment  given  to  a  murderer. 
My  term  served,  I  was  a  Siberian  exile  for  life. 

"Secretly  at  night,  to  avoid  a  demonstration,  ten  of  us  were 
led  out.  Other  tens  followed  on  successive  nights.  In  the  street 
below  were  eleven  'telegas' — heavy,  hooded  vehicles  with  three 
horses  each.  Into  one  I  was  placed,  a  stout  gendarme  squeezed 
in  on  our  side,  to  remain  there  two  months.  Just  before  my 
knees  stood  the  driver.  We  went  off  at  a  gallop,  and  our 
5,000-mile  journey  began.  .  .  .  We  were  all  dressed  in  convict 
clothes.  The  men  had  also  heavy  chains  on  feet  and  wrists. 
Their  heads  were  partly  shaved.  Our  officer  kept  the  money 
given  us  by  our  anxious  friends  at  home,  and  gave  us  each 
the  government  allowance  of  about  five  cents  a  day.  For 
sleep  we  were  placed  in  the  etapes  (wayside  prisons.)  Mr. 
Kennan  has  well  described  the  cells — reeking,  crawling,  in- 
fected with  scurvy*  consumption  and  typhoid.  They  had  log 
walls  roughly  covered  with  plaster.  The  air  was  invariably 
noisome;  the  long  bench  on  which  we  slept  had  no  bedclothes. 
Through  the  walls  we  heard  the  endless  jangling  of  fetters, 
the  moaning  of  women,  the  cries  of  sick  babies.  On  the  walls 
were  a  mass  of  inscriptions,  names  of  friends  who  had  gone 
before  us,  news  of  death  and  insanity  and  shrewd  bits  of  ad- 
vice for  outwitting  gendarmes.  Some  were  freshly  cut  but  one 
worm-eaten  poem  looked  a  century  old.  For  along  this  Great 
Siberian  Road  over  a  million  men,  women  and  children  have 
dragged — 250.000  since  1875  ;  people  from  every  social  class.  .  . 


E.  K.  BRESHKO-BRESHKOVSKAYA 
(From  her  latest  photograph) 


206  Jhe  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"You  keep  asking  me  for  scenes  and  stories.  But  you  see 
we  were  thinking  of  our  dream,  and  did  not  notice  so  much 
of  the  life  outside.  Did  any  die?  Yes,  one  of  typhoid.  Our 
officer  ran  the  sufferer  on  at  full  gallop  until  his  delirious  cries 
from  the  jolting  vehicle  so  roused  our  protests  that  he  was 
left  in  the  Irkutsk  prison,  where  he  died.  Were  there  no 
children?  Yes,  one  little  wife  had  a  baby  ten  months  old,  but 
the  rest  of  us  did  all  we  could  to  help  her  and  child  survive 
the  journey.  Friends  to  say  good-bye?  Oh,  let  me  see  !  Yes; 
as  we  passed  through  Krasnoyarsk,  a  student's  old  mother  had 
come  from  a  distance  to  see  him.  Our  officer  refused  to  allow 
the  boy  to  kiss  her.  She  caught  but  a  glimpse,  the  gendarme 
jerked  him  back  into  the  vehicle  and  they  galloped  on.  As  I 
came  by  I  saw  her  white,  haggard  old  face.  Then  she  fell  by 
the  roadside." 

After  serving  her  hard-labor  sentence  in  the  Kara  Mines, 
Breshkovskaya  made  an  atempt  to  escape  from  Siberia.  She 
was  caught.    But,  let  her  continue  her  story : 

"As  punishment  for  my  attempt,  I  was  sentenced  to  four 
years  hard  labor  in  Kara  and  to  forty  blows  of  the  lash. 
Into  my  cell  a  physician  came  to  see  if  I  were  strong  enough 
to  live  through  the  agony.  I  saw  at  once  that,  afraid  to  flog 
a  woman  political  without  precedent,  by  this  trick  of  declaring 
me  too  sick  to  be  punished,  they  wished  to  establish  the  prece- 
dent of  the  sentence,  in  order  that  others  might  be  flogged 
in  the  future.  I  insisted  that  I  was  strong  enough,  and  that 
the  court  had  no  right  to  record  such  a  sentence  unless  they 
flogged  me  at  once.    The  sentence  was  not  carried  out. 

"Back  in  Kara  I  rejoiced  to  meet  seventeen  women  politicals 
with  whom  I  lived  in  four  low  cells.  Here  we  had  books 
and  writing  materials,  and  were  quite  comfortable  discussing 
plans  for  the  future  struggle. 

"A  few  weeks  later  eight  men  politicals  escaped  in  pairs, 
leaving  dummies  in  their  places.  As  the  guards  never  took 
more  than  a  hasty  look  into  my  noisome  cell,  they  did  not 
discover  the  ruse  for  weeks.  Then  mounted  Cossacks  rode 
out.  The  man  hunt  spread.  Some  of  the  fugitives  struggled 
through    jungles,    over    mountains    and    through    swamps,    a 


E.  K.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  207 

thousand  miles  to  Vladivostok,  saw  the  longed-for  American 
vessels  and  there  on  the  docks  were  recaptured.  All  were 
brought  back  to  Kara. 

"For  this  we  were  all  punished.  One  morning  the  Cossack 
guards  entered  our  cells,  seized  us,  tore  off  our  clothes,  and 
dressed  us  in  convict  suits  alive  with  vermin.  That  scene 
cannot  be  described.  One  of  us  attempted  suicide.  Taken  to 
an  old  prison,  we  were  thrown  into  the  'black  hole' — the  foul 
stalls  off  a  low,  grimy  hall  which  contained  two  big  stoves 
and  two  little  windows.  Each  of  us  had  a  stall  6  feet  by  5. 
On  winter  nights  the  stall  doors  were  left  open  for  heat,  but 
in  summer  each  was  locked  at  night  in  her  own  black  hole. 
For  three  months  we  did  not  use  our  bunks,  but  fought  with 
candles  and  pails  of  scalding  water  until  the  vermin  were  all 
killed.  We  had  been  put  on  the  'black  hole'  diet  of  black  bread 
and  water.  For  three  years  we  never  breathed  the  outside  air. 
We  struggled  constantly  against  the  outrages  inflicted  on  us. 
After  one  outrage  we  lay  like  a  row  of  dead  women  without 
touching  food,  until  certain  promises  were  finally  exacted  from 
the  warden.  This  'hunger  strike'  was  used  repeatedly.  To 
thwart  it  we  were  often  bound  hand  and  foot  while  Cossacks 
tried  to  force  food  down  our  throats." 

A  few  years  later,  when  Breshkovskaya  had  been  taken  to 
Selenginsk,  on  the  Russian-Chinese  frontier.  George  Kennan 
met  her,  and  here  is  how  he  speaks  about  her  in  his  remarkable 
book,  "Siberia  and  the  Exile  System" :  "She  was  a  lady 
perhaps  thirty-five  years  of  age.  with  a  strong,  intelligent,  but 
not  handsome  face,  a  frank,  unreserved  manner,  and  sympa- 
thies that  seemed  to  be  warm,  impulsive,  and  generous.  Her 
face  bore  traces  of  much  suffering,  and  her  thick,  dark,  wavy 
hair,  which  had  been  cut  short  in  prison  at  the  mines,  was 
streaked  here  and  there  with  gray ;  but  neither  hardship, 
nor  exile,  nor  penal  servitude  had  been  able  to  break  her 
brave,  finely  tempered  spirit,  or  to  shake  her  convictions  of 
honor  and  duty.  She  was,  as  I  soon  discovered,  a  woman  of 
much  cultivation.  She  spoke  French.  CTerman,  and  English, 
was  a  fine  musician,  and  impressed  me  as  being  in  every  way 
an  attractive  and  interesting  woman.  .  .  .  There  was  not  an- 


208  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

other  educated  woman,  so  far  as  I  know,  within  a  hundred 
miles  in  any  direction ;  she  received  from  the  Government  an 
allowance  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  week  for  her  support; 
her  correspondence  was  under  police  control ;  she  was  sep- 
arated for  life  from  her  family  and  friends ;  and  she  had,  it 
seemed  to  me,  absolutely  nothing  to  look  forward  to  except 
a  few  years,  more  or  less,  of  hardship  and  privation,  and  at 
last,  burial  in  a  lonely  graveyard  beside  the  Selenga  River, 
where  no  sympathetic  eye  might  ever  rest  upon  the  unpainted 
wooden  cross  that  would  briefly  chronicle  her  life  and  death. 
The  unshaken  courage  with  which  this  unfortunate  woman 
contemplated  her  dreary  future,  and  the  faith  that  she  mani- 
fested in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  liberty  in  her  native  country, 
were  as  touching  as  they  were  heroic.  Almost  the  last  words 
that  she  said  to  me  were :  'Mr.  Kennan,  we  may  die  in  exile, 
and  our  children  may  die  in  exile,  and  our  children's  children 
may  die  in  exile,  but  something  will  come  of  it  at  last.'  "* 

Breshkovskaya  was  kept  in  Siberia  for  twenty-three  years, 
until  1896.  Upon  her  return  to  Central  Russia,  she  joined  the 
Partv  of  Socialists-Revolutionists  and  again  started  the  hard 
and  dangerous  work  for  the  cause  of  liberty  and  democracy. 
In  the  end  of  1904  she  came  to  the  United  States.  The  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution  of  1905  brought  her  back  to  Russia, 
and  here  once  more  is  her  own  story,  as  recently  told  in  the 
Petrograd  magazine  "Neeva." 

"In  1905.  as  soon  as  the  thundering  of  the  struggle  reached 
me,  I  set  out  immediately  for  Russia.  This  time  I  stole  across 
the  frontier  with  the  aid  of  two  smugglers  and  in  company 
of  a  comrade  who  had  with  him  a  large  quantity  of  dynamite. 

"The  Russian  Revolution  had  come!  And  it  sounded  the 
reveille  to  the  children  of  Russia,  summoning  them  to  an  un- 
even struggle. 

"Dear  comrades !  You  undoubtedlv  remember  the  eventful 
days  in  the  years  1905-'06  and  '07.  Even  the  concerted  action 
of  all  the  revolutionary  parties  could  not  withstand  the  terrible 
onslaught   of   the   brute   forces   of   an    infamous   government. 


♦Siberia  and  the  Exile  System."  by  George  Kennan.  Vol.  II.  pp.  121-122. 


E.  K.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  209 

But  those  efforts  were  not  in  vain :  they  awakened  the  slum- 
bering consciousness  of  a  great  people  and  forced  the  masses 
to  demonstrate  their  powers.  .  .  .  The  din  of  battle  died  away ; 
here  and  there  the  standards  were  put  away  for  the  next  pow- 
erful and  courageous  uprising.  The  hangmen  began  their 
gruesome  tasks  of  hanging,  shooting  and  torturing  the  best 
and  most  valiant  spirits  among  us.  But  my  spirit  showed  no 
submissiveness ;  my  heart  overflowed  with  hope  and  I  plunged 
headlong  into  the  agitated  waters  of  human  affairs. 

"I  hoped  for  a  common,  general  uprising  of  the  masses  after 
the  dissolution  of  the  Second  Duma.  But,  it  did  not  come.  .  .  . 
In  those  days  of  depression  on  the  one  side  and  futile  efforts 
on  the  other,  I  was  again  arrested  in  1907,  in  the  city  of 
Samara. 

"I  thought  that  this  time  the  hangman  would  not  hesitate 
to  have  done  with  me  once  and  for  all  time.  And  yet  my  heart 
told  me  otherwise. 

"For  two  years  and  nine  months,  during  which  time  I  was 
imprisoned  in  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul,  I  gave  very 
little  thought  to  myself.  I  looked  forward  to  that  inevitable 
hour  when  Russia,  having  passed  through  a  second  revolution, 
triumphant  and  solemn,  would  begin  to  build  and  transform 
our  unfortunate  land  and  its  uneducated  population  into  a 
model  State,  which  in  time  might  be  held  up  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  as  an  example  of  true  culture  and  social  well-being. 
A  fervent  desire  to  see  my  country  free,  and  implicit  faith  in 
the  latent  spiritual  and  social  forces  of  my  country  greatly 
encouraged  me  and  lent  wings  to  my  hopes." 

The  Tzar's  Government  again  sent  the  old  woman  to  Siberia. 
There  she  remained,  in  exile,  until  the  March  Revolution  of 
1917.  when  the  Provisional  Government  of  Revolutionary 
Russia  sent  her  a  special  invitation  to  return. 


210  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


AMONG  all  the  impressive  pictures  of  the  Russian  Revo- 
lution perhaps  the  most  beautiful  is  this  return  of 
Breshkovskaya  to  Petrograd.  "I  do  not  think  that 
anywhere  in  the  world  there  ever  was  a  bride  who  received 
so  many  flowers,"  said  the  old  heroine,  smiling  and  pointing 
out  to  her  car  in  the  train,  filled  with  flowers  given  her  on  her 
way  from  Siberia.  She  was  met  by  enthusiastic  crowds  on 
every  station,  in  her  long  journey;  she  saw  all  Russia,  all 
her  "grandchildren,"  workingmen,  soldiers,  peasants,  and  citi- 
zens of  all  ranks,  greeting  her  as  the  symbol  of  the  long  and 
painful  struggle  for  freedom  in  Russia.  And  she  was  beautiful 
in  the  midst *of  these  cheering  crowds,  the  old  woman  with 
gray  head,  calling  the  people  to  unity,  to  solidarity  in  building 
the  new  Russia. 

The  train  was  due  at  eleven  o'clock.  Long  before  that 
hour  a  crowd  of  thousands  had  collected  at  the  station,  and 
a  voluntary  guard  of  soldiers  and  students  was  trying  to  stem 
the  pushing  multitude.  In  the  special  car  reserved  for  Bresh- 
kovskaya, were  several  men,  some  of  whom  had  gone  to 
meet  her  in  Moscow.  Among  them  was  the  Secretary  of 
Justice,  A.  F.  Kerensky,  later  Prime  Minister  of  Russia. 

Secretary  Kerensky  handed  "Grandmother"  a  bouquet  of 
red  roses,  and  they  kissed  three  times.  She  addressed  him 
with  the  familiar  "thou,"  and  related  with  enthusiasm  her  visit 
to  Moscow. 

Breshkovskaya  appeared  at  the  door,  leaning  on  Kerensky's 
arm.  Taking  off  his  hat.  the  Secretary  of  Justice  addressed 
the  crowd :  "Comrades,  the  Grandmother  of  the  Russian 
Revolution  has  returned  at  last  to  a  free  country.  She  has 
been  in  dungeons,  in  the  penal  settlements  of  Lena,  has  been 
tortured  endlessly,  yet  here  we  have  her  with  us,  brave  and 
happy.     Let  us  shout  'Hurrah'  for  our  dear  Grandmother!" 

The  platform  fairly  shook  with  the  thunder  of  acclama- 
tion that  followed  his  words,  and.  to  the  accompaniment  of 
rousing  ovations,  the  beloved  "Grandmother,"  led  by  Kerensky, 
walked  to  the  reception  rooms,  where  numerous  deputations 
were  awaiting  her.     A  party  of  nurses  came  first,  handing  her 


E.  K.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  211 

flowers  and  waving  a  red  flag  with  the  inscription :  "Long  live 
the  Grandmother  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  Ekaterina  Con- 
stantinovna  Breshko-Breshkovskaya!"  The  spokeswoman  said  : 
"We  nurses  are  happy  to  see  you,  our  beloved"  Grandmother, 
and  to  give  you  our  humble  greetings.  We  are  but  an  in- 
finitesimal group  of  all  those  sisters  who.  in  this  happy  day 
for  Russia,  send  you  their  humble  and  worshipful  greetings." 

The  beloved  woman  was  surrounded  on  all  sides ;  women 
pushed  one  another  to  kiss  her  hands,  men  doffed  their  hats 
and  shouted  "Hurrah !"  as  Breshkovskaya,  accompanied  by 
Kerensky.  proceeded  to  the  waiting  automobile  to  be  taken  to 
the  Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  Whep 
the  news  came  that  "Grandmother"  had  arrived,  everyone 
present  rose  and  applauded  and  acclaimed  the  returning  hero- 
ine.   The  ovation  lasted  a  very  long  time. 

The  first  to  speak  was  Secretary  A.  F.  Ke.rsusky.  He  said  : 
"I  am  happy  and  proud  to  greet  you,  Grandmother,  in  the 
name  of  the  Russian  Democracy  and  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. I  am  happy  to  greet  you,  whom  the  old  Government 
persecuted  and  whom  we  now  meet  with  such  honor." 

"In  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,"  said  N.  S.  Tscheidze.  "I 
'greet  the  woman  who  inspired  the  Russian  Revolution.  Let 
us  hope  that,  with  the  same  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  the 
cause,  she  will  continue  to  inspire  us  in  our  work  of  further 
conquests  on  the  road  of  freeing  Russia.  Again  T  greet  you 
humbly  and  salute  you  !" 

One  after  another,  representatives  of  various  groups  rose  to 
greet  the  returning  heroine.  'Deeply  moved,  Breshkovskaya 
replied  to  these  greetings.     Every  one  rose.     She  said  : 

"I  have  come  over  a  long  road.  I  am  old  and  cannot 
remember  everything.  As  T  came  out  on  the  platform  T  saw 
the  people  :  all  around  I  saw  workingmen.  T  came  into  this 
temple  of  freedom  and  see  military  organizations,  workmen, 
cossacks,  sailors.  Thus,  I  have  to-day  had  the  happiness  of 
seeing  representatives  of  all   organized   Russia.     Ts   not   this 


212  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

complete  happiness !     It  proves  that  we  can  work  in  unison, 
free  and  happy,  without  discord,  as  one  man. 

"Dear  citizens !  I  have  been  fifty  years  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Russian  Revolution,  and  without  boast  can  say  that  there  was 
never  one  more  true  to  duty,  discipline,  or  who  appreciated 
more  the  meaning  of  obligations.  Never  has  there  been  any 
wrangling  or  disputes  in  my  party  on  my  account.  I  have 
always  respected  the  opinions  of  my  comrades  and  the  rulings 
of  the  party  to  such  an  extent  that  I  have  invariably  stood 
'for  a  friendly  settlement  of  the  most  disputable  questions. 

"Do  I  not  see  that  you  are  all  children  of  the  same  cause? 
The  soldier — isn't  he  the  same  as  the  workingman?  You  are 
all  children  of  our  one  great  mother,  Russia,  and  why  should 
you  suddenly  begin  to  quarrel  with  one  another?" 

A  soldier  approached  quite  close  to  the  platform  where 
"Grandmother"  was  speaking.  She  picked  out  a  rose  from  the 
bouquet  and  handed  it  to  her  "grandson."  The  soldier  kissed 
her  hand  tenderly.  Breshkovskaya  gently  stroked  the  soldier's 
hair,   and   continued   amidst   thundering   applause: 

"If  we  all  aspire  towards  freedom  and  equality,  what  dif- 
ferences can  there  be  between  us?  What  is  there  to  disagree 
about?  Why  put  sticks  in  the  spokes  of  one  another's  wheels? 
If  we  seek  to  overcome  such  an  enemy,  such  a  bitter  foe  of 
Russia,  as  Wilhelm,  can  we  not  overcome  our  little  differ- 
ences? It  would  say  very  little  for  our  wisdom  if  we  could 
not  combat  that. 

"All  these  greetings,  on  all  sides,  addressed  to  one  and  the 
same  person,  to  me,  whom  you  call  your  'Grandmother,'  prove 
that  you  are  unanimous.  Everyone  says,  'We  will  die  for 
freedom.'  In  this  I  see  solidarity.  Everyone  understands  that 
if  we  do  not  overcome  the  foe.  it  will  bring  our  country  to 
grief;  he,  our  bloody  foe,  will  come  and  will  dictate  to  us  his 
laws.  I  am  sure  no  one  wants  that.  We  do  not  desire  any 
annexations,  we  have  no  wish  to  ruin  others,  but  to  allow 
vourselves  to  be  trampled  upon,  to  lose  your  self-esteem,  that 
would  be  unworthy  of  great  Russia! 

"My  children,  nothing  is  obtained  gratis.  No  complete 
freedom  can  be  obtained  without  hard  work.     You  know  per- 


E.  K.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  213 

haps  better  than  I  that  nothing  accomplishes  itself — brain  and 
spirit  are  necessary.  For  three  years  Russia  has  been  suffer- 
ing so,  as  no  one  has  suffered,  and  perhaps  more  suffering  will 
have  to  be  borne  before  we  reach  the  goal.  Then  let  us  unite 
and  let  us  strive  that  no  petty  differences  mar  the  way  to  our 
chief  aim — the  freedom  and  happiness  of  the  whole  nation." 

Breshkovskaya  ended  her  speech  amidst  enthusiastic  and 
continuous  applause. 

The  chair  into  which  she  sank  was  lifted  by  Kerensky, 
Tscheidze,  Skobelev,  and  others,  who  placed  it  carefully  on 
their  shoulders,  and  accompanied  by  unprecedented  acclama- 
tions and  shouts  of  "Hurrah"  carried  it  to  the  Ekaterininsk 
Hall,  where  they  were  met  with  further  applause  and  ovations. 
Flowers  were  carried  in  front  of  the  chair.  A  ring  was  formed 
around  to  clear  the  passage,  and  the  beloved  heroine  was  car- 
ried to  the  entrance. 

Here  a  large  gathering  of  representatives  of  the  army,  from 
the  trenches  and  reserves,  awaited  her.  "In  the  name  of  the 
Petrograd  garrison  of  25,000  men,  allow  me,  Grandmother,  to 
greet  you !" 

"Grandmother"  patted  the  soldier  gently  and  gave  him  a  rose. 
"Go  back,"  she  said,  "and  tell  them  that  Grandmother  has 
sent  them  a  rose  and  her  greetings." 

A  Red  Cross  nurse  approached.  "In  the  name  of  the  nurses 
on  the  Northern  front,  allow  me  to  kiss  you."  "Grandmother" 
kissed  her  and  gave  her  a  rose  also. 

"I  have  been  wounded  four  times,"  said  an  officer  near  by. 
"My  brother  lost  his  life  for  freedom.  My  father  has  suffered. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  I  obtained  permission  to  don  a 
uniform  to  stand  in  the  ranks  of  the  army.  Allow  me  to  greet 
you  in  the  name  of  the  invalided." 

"Thank  you,  dear,  thank  you." 

A.  A.  Nazarov,  Cossack,  member  of  the  Duma,  greeted 
Breshkovskaya  in  the  name  of  the  members  of  the  Duma  : 

"Long  live  the  great  Russian  Grandmother !  In  your  youth 
you  spread  the  seed  of  freedom,  and  in  your  old  age  you  have 


214  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

made  Russia  happy.    Long  live  the  bearers  of  peace;  long  live 
the  Russian  woman !" 

Our  few  pages  devoted  to  Breshkovskaya  may  be  best 
closed  with  the  following  excerpts  from  her  own  "Message  to 
America,  printed  in  the  "Outlook"  of  November  21st,  1917.* 
She  wrote  this  Message  herself,  and  the  Editors  of  the  "Out- 
look" were  right  in  reproducing  it  "untouched  by  any  pedantic 
pen."  because  her  broken  English  only  "adds  both  to  its  force 
and  to  its  charm." 

"The  effect  of  the  liberty  during  the  first  month  was 
wonderful  all  over  Russia,"  says  Breshkovskaya,  in  her 
Message  to  America.  "It  was  not  only  a  feast  of  joy  and 
ecstasy  that  the  people  celebrated  ;  it  was  an  energetic  effort 
to  release  itself  from  all  the  fetters  which  crippled  the  life  and 
crushed  the  spirit.  And  as  by  a  miracle,  from  one  end  to  the 
other  of  the  country  it  became  free  and  hopeful,  amiable  and 
friendly  to  every  good  word,  attention,  and  feeling.  So  reason- 
able and  so  strong  at  once.  These  days  the  people  showed  to 
the  world  his  veritable  character,  the  intimate  form  of  his 
soul,  the  childish  purity  of  his  heart.  No  crimes,  even  no 
offenses,  were  committed. 

"So  it  ran  happily  till  Russia  was  invaded  by  the  German 
spies  in  such  a  great  number  that  they  covered  every  city  and 
district,  for  all  who  belonged  to  the  Black  Hundred  in  our 
country  followed  them  and  reinforced  the  forces  sent  by  the 
Kaiser.  These  rejected  people  formed  an  army  composed  of 
different  classes  dissatisfied  with  the  new  regime  and  endeav- 
oring to  return  the  "blessed"  time  of  rapine,  espionage,  perse- 
cution, and  all  the  favors  of  the  monarchy.  Certainly  they 
would  be  glad  to  see  the  Kaiser  on  the  throne  and  the  Social- 
ists sent  again  to  Siberia,  and  they  began  their  propaganda 
as  if  they  were  true  friends  of  the  poor  and  oppressed,  and  by 
and  by  gained  the  confidence  of  the  less  enlightened.  .  . . 

"The  people  are  so  little  cultured  that  they  do  not  under- 
stand enough  what  disaster  it  would  be  for  us  to  have  the 
Germans  as  a  strong  and  militarist  neighbor ;  what  disaster  it 
would  be  to  lose  the  friendship  of  all  civilized  nations.     They 

•Reprinted  by  courtesy  of  The  Outlook  Co. 


E.  K.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  215 

are  so  ignorant  that  they  do  not  know  the  position  of  Russia 
among  other  countries  and  international  interests.  That  is 
our  mischief. 

"To  that  we  shall  add  that  no  people  in  Europe  suffered  so 
much  for  centuries  as  it  was  the  lot  of  our  people,  who  longed 
for  liberty  and  some  welfare.  Tormented,  disappointed.  Rus- 
sia is  eager  to  feel  free,  to  have  his  own  will  and  rest.  .  .  . 

"Certainly  the  conditions  we  go  through  are  hard  and  de- 
mand serious  efforts,  but  I  say  that  those  who  are  profoundly 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  country  are  doing  all  they  can 
to  deliver  it  from  both  enemies — exterior  and  interior.  One 
should  not  forget  that  Russia  existed  a  thousand  years  under 
a  yoke  which  isolated  her  from  all  civilization,  and  those  who 
were  enlightened  passed  their  life  in  the  prisons  and  in 
Siberia. 

"Now  we  have  to  fight  three  enemies  in  our  work  of  deliver- 
ance :  Germany,  the  army  of  Black  Hundreds,  and  the  dark- 
ness of  mind,  the  ignorance  of  our  own  people.  YYe  have  to 
fight  also  against  the  corruption  of  morals  imbibed  during  the 
last  ten  years,  for  after  the  revolution  of  1905-6  the  Russian 
Government  did  all  it  could  to  corrupt  the  population,  to  dis- 
solve the  sense  of  social  unity,  of  common  respcnsiDility  for 
the  safety  of  the  country,  of  the  nation,  of  the  common  wel- 
fare. From  the  Czar  himself  to  the  last  policeman,  every  one 
was  bought  by  somebody.  And,  corrupted  as  they  were  them- 
selves, they  tried  to  do  it  with  the  rest  of  the  nation,  begin- 
ning from  the  schools  and  poor  people,  and  going  up  to  the 
very  top  of  intelligent  individuals." 


GEORGE  V.  PLEKHANOV 
(From  a  photograph  taken  several  years  ago) 

CHAPTER  V 
George  Valentinovich  Plekhanov 

/^\  EORGE  VALENTINOVICH  PLEKHANOV,  one  of 
V  "W"  the  founders  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor 
^^^  Party  and  the  most  eminent  writer  of  that  party, 
is  of  noble  parentage.^)  He  was  born  in  1857  in  the  Province 
of  Tambov.  After  having  graduated  from  a  military  school, 
he  entered  the  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers.  In  St.  Peters- 
burg he  became  acquainted  with  the  revolutionists  of  the 
party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People."  During  the  demonstration 
before  the  Kazan  Cathedral,  on  December  6,  1876,  he  made  a 
fiery   speech   against  the  Tzar's   Government   and   its   policy. 


George  V alentinovich  Plekhanov  217 

Through  the  ingenuity  of  a  workingman,  he  escaped  arrest, 
but  after  that  had  to  live  "illegally." 

Plekhanov  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  organization 
"Land  and  Freedom,"  and  one  of  the  chief  contributors  to  the 
publication  bearing  the  same  name.  In  this  publication  appeared 
his  first  literary  work,  "The  Law  of  Economic  Development 
and  the  Problems  of  Socialism,"  together  with  an  outline  of 
the  Party's  program.  At  this  time  Plekhanov  was  carry- 
ing on  extensive  propaganda  among  the  workingmen  in  St. 
Petersburg.  He  was  arrested,  but  was  freed,  thanks  to  a  well- 
forged  passport.  During  the  same  period  he  traveled  exten- 
sively throughout  Russia,  preaching  the  Socialist  ideal. 

At  the  time  the  Central  Committee  of  "Land  and  Free- 
dom" had  practically  ceased  to  exist  because  of  the  numerous 
arrests,  Plekhanov  was  in  the  Don  region  preparing  an  appeal 
to  the  "glorious  troops  of  the  Don  region."  Seeing  the  neces- 
sity for  renewing  the  Party  activities,  he  immediately  re- 
turned to  St.  Petersburg.  During  the  split  that  occurred  in  the 
Party,  Plekhanov,  as  an  advocate  of  agitation  on  an  economic 
basis,  chiefly  among  the  city  workingmen,  energetically 
opposed  the  political  tendencies  of  the  party  of  the  "Will 
of  the  People,"  especially  their  terrorist  tactics.  At 
the  Voronezh  Conference  he  was  their  severest  and  most  de- 
termined opponent.  After  the  Conference  he  seceded  from  the 
Party,  together  with  Zasulich,  Deutch  and  Stefanovitch. 
Their  attempt  to  issue  a  paper,  "Chorny  Peredel,"  failed,  be- 
cause the  first  issue  was  seized  and  the  secret  printing  plant 
was  confiscated  on  January  28,  1880.  Plekhanov  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  Russia.  His  activities  among  the  workingmen 
in  Russia,  Plekhanov  described  in  his  pamphlet,  "The  Russian 
Worker  in  the  Revolutionary  Movement.  Personal  Recollec- 
tions." 

Even  before  leaving  Russia,  Plekhanov  was  known  as  a 
man  of  great  erudition.  Placed  in  a  position  where  he.  could 
have  sufficient  leisure,  he  made  a  very  thorough  study  of 
Socialism.  The  conditions  of  the  time,  the  shipwreck  the  old 
teachings  had  suffered  in  Russia,  bringing  the  question  of  new 
ways  and  methods  of  working  and  fighting  to  the  foreground. 


218  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

impelled  him  to  make  this  thorough  study.  Plekhanov's  views 
developed  rapidly.  He  recognized  the  fallacy  of  the  theory 
of  Socialism  he  had  advocated  in  the  publication  "Chorny 
Peredel,"  his  negation  of  the  necessity  of  political  struggle. 
As  a  result,  he  adopted  the  teachings  of  scientific  Socialism 
with  its  fundamental  principle :  "Every  class  struggle  is  a 
political  struggle." 

Though  at  the  same  time  Plekhanov  became  fully 
convinced  that  the  capitalistic  phase  of  development  was 
inevitable  in  Russia,  yet  his  new  political  views  drew 
him  closer  to  the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People."  He 
joined  the  Party  with  the  intention  of  reorganizing  it  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  of  scientific  Socialism.  He  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  to  edit,  together  with  P.  L.  Lavrov  and 
S.  M.  Kravchinsky  (Stepniak),  the  "Vestnik  Narodnoy  Voli" 
(Messenger  of  The  Will  of  the  People),  and  for  this  purpose 
he  prepared  his  article,  "Socialism  and  the  Political  Struggle," 
containing  a  criticism  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  program  of 
the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People."  For  some  unknown 
reasons.  Tikhomirov,  then  Editor  of  the  publication,  disap- 
proved of  Plekhanov's  new  views,  and  Plekhanov  left  the 
Party. 

In  1883  Plekhanov,  together  with  Axelrod,  Zasulich,  Deutch 
and  Ignatov,  organized  the  first  Russian  Social-Democratic 
group,  the  "Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor."  which  aimed, 
through  the  publishing  of  books  and  pamphlets,  to  arouse  a 
conscious  working-class  movement  in  Russia.  This  organiza- 
tion published  Plekhanov's  "Socialism  and  the  Class  Struggle," 
in  1883,  and  in  1884— "Our  Differences  of  Opinion,"  which  was 
a  trenchant  criticism  of  the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People" 
and  of  their  propagandist  movement.  This  book,  which  accused 
the  Russian  Socialist  Movement  of  that  time  of  being  uncon- 
sciously reactionary,  was  answered  by  similar  accusations  from 
the  opposite  camp,  and  thus  a  controversy  was  started  between 
the  Marxists,  organized  in  the  "Group  for  the  Emancipation  of 
Labor,"  and  the  party  of  the  "Will  of  the  People."  Plekhanov 
continued  this  controversy  in  books  and  articles  published  in 
Russia.    In  1895.  under  the  nom  de  plume  N.  Beltov,  appeared 


BTOrOfl    l'OA>    »3jSA«l». 


pocnftcxAfl  couuub- 

4EM0KPATHMECKAH 
PABOMAfl    ILAPTIfl 


MCKPA 


~-— —  i    —  r «.i'—j 


JK80 


l*»  MAR  MM  POAA. 


M20 


"ISCRA"  (THE  SPARK) 

Official  organ  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party. 
Published  in  Switzerland  before  the  Revolution  of  1905. 


220  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"On  the  Question  of  the  Development  of  the  Monistic  Concep- 
tion of  History,"  which  is  the  most  complete  and  sys- 
tematic exposition  of  dialectic  materialism,  and  in  1896,  under 
the  nom  de  plume  A.  Volgin, — "The  Fundamentals  of  the 
Popular  Propaganda  Movement,  According  to  Mr.  Vorontzov's 
Works."  To  the  same  subject  he  devoted  series  of  articles 
in  the  "Social  Democrat,"  "Zaria"  and  in  other  publications 
appearing  abroad.  From  the  beginning  of  the  '90s  Plekh- 
anov  was  busily  contributing  to  foreign  literature,  acquaint- 
ing it  with  the  various  tendencies  of  Russian  Socialism  and 
elaborating  the  theories  of  scientific  Socialism  ("Anarchism 
and  Socialism."  "Gelvetziy,  Golba  and  Marx"  and  other 
works).  These  works  won  him  an  international  reputation  as 
an  authority  on  scientific  Socialism  and  added  to  the  prestige 
of  the  newly  formed  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party. 
Because  of  his  activities,  Plekhanov  was  exiled  for  a  short 
time  in  1889  from  Switzerland,  and  in  1895 — from  France. 

At  the  same  time  that  he  was  publishing  his  literary  works, 
Plekhanov  was  constantly  active  in  the  Socialist  Movement. 
In  1895  he  entered  the  "Union  of  Russian  Social-Democrats," 
founded  by  the  "Group  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor."  In 
the  beginning  of  1901  he  joined  the  Social-Democratic  groups 
"Iscra"  and  "Zaria,"  and  contributed  a  number  of  articles 
to  the  publications  bearing  the  same  names. 

The  complicated  political  conditions  which  arose  after  the 
17th  of  October.  1905,  forced  attention  to  the  question  of 
tactics,  and  caused  Plekhanov  to  concentrate  his  literary  activ- 
ities on  this  question.  He  considered  the  Russian  Revolution 
a  purely  bourgeois  revolution  entailing  an  inevitable,  compli- 
cated and  prolonged  struggle  for  democratic  reforms,  through 
parliamentary  action.  From  this  point  of  view,  he  advocated 
participation  in  elections  and  urged  the  workers  to  support 
the  liberals  against  the  conservative  parties.  At  that  time 
Plekhanov  published  a  series  of  articles  and  pamphlets  against 
the  Bolsheviki,  who  had  made  their  appearance  in  the  Party 
in  1903  (""Letters  About  Tactics  and  Tactlessness."  "The 
Memoranda  of  a  Publicist,"  "New  Letters  About  Tactics  and 
Tactlessness,*  "They  and  We,"  etc.). 


George  V alentinovich  Plekhanov  221 

Plekhanov's  literary  works,  besides  those  mentioned  above, 
consist  of  series  of  books,  pamphlets  and  articles  printed  in 
periodicals.  A  number  of  his  articles  were  collected  in  1905- 
1906,  in  two  volumes,  published  under  the  nom  de  plume  X. 
Beltov,  and  entitled  "During  the  Period  of  Twenty  Years" 
and  "A  Criticism  of  Our  Critics." 

During  the  past  fifteen  years,  Plekhanov  has  devoted  a  great 
deal  of  his  time  to  the  study  of  the  development  of  Russian 
political  thought  and  to  the  history  of  the  Russian  political 
movement.  Among  his  works  published  during  this  period, 
two  deserve  especial  mention :  his  book,  "N.  G.  Chernyshev- 
sky."  the  best  exposition  of  the  views  of  the  famous  Russian 
economist,  and  his  "History  of  Russian  Social  Thought,"  a 
monumental  work  in  five  volumes,  two  of  which  have  already 
appeared  in  print. 

^George  Plekhanov  is  recognized  all  the  world  over  as  one 
of  the  greatest  Marxian  writers  of  our  time.  )  In  this  great 
war  Plekhanov's  position  has  been  clear  from  the  very  be- 
ginning. As  a  democrat  and  a  Socialist,  he  has  considered 
it  his  elementary  duty  to  stand  with  the  Allied  democracies  in 
their  battle  with  the  German  autocracy.  We  quoted  above,  on 
pages  160-166.  from  the  Socialist  Manifesto  addressed  to  the 
Russian  laboring  masses,  issued  soon  after  the  beginning  of 
the  war.  We  mentioned  George  Plekhanov  as  one  of  the 
signers  of  the  Manifesto,  and,  since  it  is  most  probable  that 
he  was  the  real  author  of  it,  we  will  repeat  some  parts  which 
have  proven  really  prophetic. 

"We,  the  undersigned,  belong  to  the  different  shades  of 
Russian  socialistic  thought.  We  differ  on  many  things,  but 
we  firmly  agree  in  that  the  defeat  of  Russia  in  her  struggle 
with  Germany  would  mean  her  defeat  in  her  struggle  for 
freedom. 

"If  you  say  to  yourselves  that  it  is  immaterial  to  you 
and  to  your  less  developed  brothers  as  to  who  wins  in  the 
great  international  collision  going  on  now,  and  if  you  act 
accordingly,  Russia  will  be  crushed  by  Germany.  And  when 
Russia  will  be  crushed  by  Germany,  it  will  fare  badly  with 
the  Allies.     This  does  not  need  anv  demonstration. 


222  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"If  the  Germans  win  the  final  victory,  they  will  demand  of 
us  an  enormous  contribution,  in  comparison  with  which  the 
streams  of  gold  poured  into  victorious  Germany  from  van- 
quished France,  after  the  war  of  1871,  will  seem  a  mere  trifle. 
"But  that  will  not  be  all.  The  most  consequent  and  frank 
heralds  of  German  imperialism  are  saying-  even  now  that  it 
is  necessary  to  exact  from  Russia  the  cession  of  important  ter- 
ritory, which  should  be  cleared  from  the  present  population 
for  the  greater  convenience  of  German  settlers.  Never  before 
have  plunderers,  dreaming  of  despoiling  a  conquered  people, 
displayed  such  cynical  heartlessness ! 

"But  for  our  vanquishers  it  will  not  be  enough  to  exact 
an  unheard-of  enormous  contribution  and  to  tear  up  our 
western  border  lands.  Already  in  1904,  Russia,  being  in  a 
difficult  situation,  was  obliged  to  conclude  a  commercial 
treaty  with  Germany,  very  disadvantageous  to  herself.  The 
treaty  hindered,  at  the  same  time,  the  development  of  our 
agriculture  and  the  progress  of  our  industries.  It  affected, 
with  equal  disadvantage,  the  interests  of  the  farmers  as  well 
as  of  those  engaged  in  industries.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  what 
kind  of  treaty  victorious  German  imperialism  would  impose 
upon  us.  In  economic  matters,  Russia  would  become  a  Ger- 
man colony.  Russia's  further  economic  development  would 
be  greatly  hindered  if  not  altogether  stopped.  Degeneration 
and  deprivation  would  be  the  result  of  German  victory  for  an 
important  part  of  the  Russian  working  people. 

"What  will  German  victory  bring  to  Western  Europe? 
After  all  we  have  already  said,  it  is  needless  to  expatiate  on 
how  many  of  the  unmerited  economic  calamities  it  will  bring 
to  the  working  population  of  the  western  countries,  allied  to 
Russia.  We  wish  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  following : 
England,  France,  even  Belgium  and  Italy,  are  in  a  political 
sense  far  ahead  of  the  German  Empire,  which  has  not  as  yet 
grown  up  to  a  parliamentary  regime.  German  victory  over 
these  countries  would  be  the  victory  of  the  old  over  the  new, 
and  if  the  democratic  ideal  is  dear  to  you,  you  must  wish 
success  to  our  western  Allies. 

"Indifference  to  the  issue  of  this  war  would  be,  for  us,  equal 


George  V alentinovich  Plekhanov  223 

to  political  suicide.  The  most  important,  the  most  vital  in- 
terests of  the  proletariat  and  of  the  laboring  peasantry  demand 
of  you  an  active  participation  in  the  defense  of  the  country.  .  .  . 
Your  watchword  must  be  'Victory  over  the  foreign  enemy.'  In 
an  active  movement  towards  such  victory,  the  live  forces  of  the 
people  will  become  free  and  strong. 

"The  tactics  which  can  be  defined  by  the  motto,  'All  or 
nothing."  is  the  tactics  of  anarchy,  fully  unworthy  of  the  con- 
scious representatives  of  the  proletariat  and  peasantry.  The 
General  Staff  of  the  German  army  would  greet,  with  pleasure, 
the  news  that  we  had  adopted  such  tactics.  Believe  us  that 
this  staff  is  ready  to  help  all  those  who  would  like  to  preach 
it  in  our  country.  They  want  trouble  in  Russia,  they  want 
strikes  in  England,  they  want  everything  that  would  facilitate 
the  achievement  of  their  conquering  schemes. 

"But  you  will  not  make  them  rejoice.  You  will  not  forget 
the  words  of  our  great  fabulist :  'What  the  enemy  advises  is 
surely  bad.'  The  situation  is  such  that  we  cannot  come  to 
freedom  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  war  of  national  defense." 

As  we  have  said  before,  unfortunately,  after  a  year  of 
revolutionary  development,  since  March,  1917,  other  tendencies 
than  the  tendencies  obvious  in  this  Manifesto  have  gained 
control  over  the  Russian  proletariat  and  especially  over  the 
soldiers.  Lenine's  influence,  at  least  temporarily,  has  over- 
whelmed the  influence  of  George  Plekhanov.  But  Plekhanov 
and  the  spirit  of  his  teachings  are  still  alive.  The  demagogism 
of  the  Bolsheviki  may  have  a  temporary  success,  but  the  main 
support  of  the  Bolsheviki.  the  remains  of  the  old  Russian 
Army,  will  soon  disappear,  and  as" for  the  part  of  the  prole- 
tariat influenced  by  the  Bolshevist  promises,  life  is  already 
bringing  it  to  a  proper  understanding  of  Russia's  problems. 
The"  Russian  proletariat  will  be,  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past, 
led  by  the  Russian  Social-Democracy,  and  the  latter,  en  masse, 
will  turn  again  for  leadership  to  the  man  who  has  devoted 
his  entire  life  to  finding  the  ways  where  the  greatest  dreams 
of  the  greatest  leaders  of  humanitv  meet  the  prosaic  laws  of 
life. 


I 


Part  III 

The  Birth  of 
the  Russian  Democracy 


"Russia  tvas  known  by  those  who  knew 
it  best  to  have  been  always  in  fact  demo- 
cratic at  heart,  in  all  the  vital  habits  of 
her  thought,  in  all  the  intimate  relation- 
ships of  her  people  that  spoke  their 
natural  instinct,  their  habitual  attitude 
towards  life.  The  autocracy  that  crowned 
the  summit  of  her  political  structure, 
long  as  it  had  stood  and  terrible  as  was 
the  reality  of  its  power,  was  not  in  fact 
Russian  in  origin,  character  or  purpose; 
and  now  it  has  been  shaken  off  and  the 
great,  generous  Russian  people  have 
been  added  in  all  their  naive  majesty 
and  might  to  the  forces  that  are  fighting 
for  freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice, 
and  for  peace.  Here  is  a  fit  partner  for 
a  League  of  Honor." 

President  Wilson. 

(In  his  Address  before  Congress,  April  2,  1917) 


Tavrichesky  Palace— the  meeting  place  of  the  Duma.     The  Petrograd 
center  of  the  Revolution  in  March,  1917. 


I 


CHAPTER  I 
The  March  Revolution 

T  is  needless  to  repeat  in  detail  the  well-known  history  of 
the  March  Revolution  of  1917.  /  The  Revolution  started 
in  Petrograd,  where  the  revolutionary  crowds  were,  in 
the  course  of  a  few  days,  joined  by  the  garrison.  It  made 
its  appearance  immediately  in  Moscow  and  in  the  provincial 
cities,  the  troops  joining  the  revolutionists  everywhere.  The 
Imperial  Duma,  represented  by  its  Executive  Committee,  with 
President  M.  V.  Rodzianko  at  the  head,  and  the  Generals  com- 
manding the  Russian  x\rmies  promptly  joined  the  movement, 
and  to  this  may  be  attributed  its  unusual  swiftness. 

The  Revolution  began  in  Petrograd  on  the  11th  of  March, 
and  on  the  15th  its  first  stage  was  already  an  accomplished 
fact:  the  Tzar  had  abdicated  and  a  Provisional  Government 
Ik       ;een  formed,  with  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  at  its  head. 

Among  the  many  human  documents  reflecting  these  wonder- 
ful days  of  the  March  Revolution,  of  especial  value  is  an 
American's  story,  told  by  an  eye-witness,  a  story  published 
in  the  New  York  "Evening  Post"  of  May  5th.  1917.*    Given  in 


►Reprinted  by  courtesy  of  the  New  York  Evening   Post  Co. 


228 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


the  form  of  a  letter  received  in  this  country  from  Moscow,  the 
first  part  of  the  story  deals,  as  the  readers  will  observe,  with 
events  in  Petrograd : 

"Moscow.  Russia,  March  15. — This  letter,  I  am  fairly  sure, 
will  eventually  fall  into  your  hands,  for  some  one  is  kind 
enough  to  take  it  to  America  for  me.  The  last  three  days  have 
been  historical  and  every  one  declares  that  to-day,  the  15th  of 


Funeral  procession  following  the  bodies  of  the  fallen  fighters  for 
freedom.     March  23,  1917. 

March,  is  going  to  be  an  annual  holiday  in  Russia  to  celebrate 
this  marvelously  successful  Revolution. 

"On  Thursday  last,  the  8th  of  March,  H.  was  in  Petrograd, 
and,  as  far  as  I  can  gather,  there  was  a  strike  among  the 
workmen  for  bread.  This  strike  was  put  down  with  a  little 
bloodshed  by  the  soldiers.  Now,  this  strike  was  the  final  bub- 
bling over  of  a  kettle  that  had  been  long  in  the  boiling.  All 
over  Russia  there  had  been  the  desperate  feeling  of  being 
betrayed  to  the  Germans,  that  no  matter  how  great  their 
courage  and  sacrifice  might  be,  in  the  end,  the  fruit  of  their 
sacrifices  would  be  denied  them  and  everything  handed  over 
to  the  Germans.     Whole  regiments  have  been  wiped  out  at 


z  s 

1/    = 

Z    Q 


N   ~ 

Q  ^ 
-     : 


230 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


the  front,  sent  there  without  arms.  Brusilov,  every  one,  has 
been  hindered  in  every  possible  way  while  the  German  officials 
were  nullifying  all  Russia's  gigantic  sacrifices.  They  all  say, 
'If  we  had  only  a  chance,  we  would  have  beaten  the  Germans 
long  ago.'  The  chance  has  never  been  given  them,  and  they 
were  being  driven  crazy  by  the  thought. 


artUHIMWM 


"The  Most  Enduring  Union" — a  revolutionary  poster  representing  the 

union  between  the  soldier,  the  workingman,  the  peasant  and  the  sailor. 

They  bear  a  banner  inscribed  with  "Down  with  Absolutism!" 

"I  have  just  come  back  from  Kazan  ;  there,  steaks  are  being 
sold  for  fifty  kopeks  and  bread  and  compote  for  fiftv  kopeks. 
Two  hundred  versts  from  Moscow  there  were  masses  of  white 
bread  going  begging;  in  Moscow,  bread  lines  were  everywhere 
and,  of  course,  there  was  great  suffering.  The  Russians  are 
all  convinced  that  the  Germans  are  responsible  for  this,  and 
I  imagine  that  they  are.  Every  one  despised  the  Tzar,  hated 
the  Empress  as  a  traitress,  and  all  agreed  that  Russia  was  in 
as  bad  a  way  as  she  well  could  be,  and  that  the  war  could  not' 
go  on  under  such  conditions  very  much  longer. 

"To  return  to  the  sequence  of  events.    On  Friday.  March  the 


m  n  c. 

UeHTp.  ran.  ct. 

5/3 191     f 

Cays    otm 


Te/ierpaMMa  Nfi — 

H31, uaryorpajca  Heatp. shc.  « ioo 

noaaHa  4 ■  13 q. J±o 

npuwu* — EBC-TKrHieBV- - 

BOsHHBH. 


Be  tin,     H. 

OCvfeHBHte  no  jihhIh:   HunepaTopb  HMKojjaft  btopoS  orpeHCH 
2  ai&pTa  on  npcCToaa  bi  nojiksy  BejjHKaro  Khh3«  Jtexaxxa 
AjeKcaH^poBH^a  tomkb.  BsjihkIK  KHfl3k  3  Moptra  OTKaaajjcH 
Boenplatfc  BepiOBHyB  BjiacTk  jo  ycTaHOB*  eHl*  o6pa3a 
IlpaBjfeHla  yHpfej«tfeJii.HUifb   Co6paKl<iift>   co3BaHHaro  Ha       oce^ 
Bt  Bclofi^aro  npflMoro  p«BHaro  w  ?af*Hare  rcaocoaaai*  x 
o6paTMji£H  ho  Bctifb  rpax£aHai.rb  ct  npochfioft  noxMHHHTkc* 
BpeiteHHouy  "paani  aciBy  no  rioqHHy  TocyxapcTBeHHoS  .flyun 
BojHHKnieky  h  o6jeMeKHoay  bcod  nojHOTOD  bjibcth     xo  pimeHJ 
yipa^HTejiiHftro  Co6paHls.o5T>  oSpast  npaBjieHia  tohkb. 

Tip  6.5C  iZaTeaeui.    COBtTa    -aHKHCTpOBl.  COCTOHT'-.     .  Knfl3j. 

*  k  b  o  b  t.  MMHjfCTpom.,  Ilyteft  CooQmeHift  HeKpacoBi 
TOifta  Aktt,  06*  otpweHiH       eefaac-b   pa3vcnjiaeTCH     :ohki. 
GnoKoSeiBie  a*  Ctoxho.*  hojiho^. 


KoMHceapis  rocy^^ctBeHHOH  ^yitu 

Hjtsirb   Eh  jB  y  (5  a  h  k  o  b  .*     £'  o  6  p  o  a 

CKift. 


T»k-  K»t<du**cjio«  h    4. 


<>».  T«i  Mr  1Q1  ■ 


Uu   >*  Si»-  »">  r.  &»«.  X  *-  '/■ 


Facsimile  of  the  telegram  sent  out  by  the  Commissaire  of  the  Duma. 
A.  A.  Boublikov,  to  all  the  railroads,  announcing  the  abdication  of 

Nicholas  II  and  the  formation  of  the  Provisional  Government. 


<V     N     <Ji 


The  March  Revolution  233 


ninth,  in  Petrograd,  crowds  began  gathering  and  on  Saturday 
afternoon  the  storm  broke.  There  was  no  mob  rioting  in  the 
streets.  All  was  too  well  organized.  It  was  a  battle  between 
the  regiments  on  the  people's  side  and  those  on  the  Tzar's. 
All  Friday,  the  people  had  been  mingling  with  patrolling  in- 
fantry and  cavalry,  arguing  with  them  and  explaining  the 
causes  of  their  revolt;  they  only  wanted  bread.  'Dear  little 
soldiers,  don't  shoot  us,  all  we  want  is  bread;'  and  in  this 
business  the  women  were  as  active  as  the  men.  The  Pavlovsk 
regiment  went  over  first,  killed  its  colonel  and  joined  the 
people.  Then  one  by  one,  the  people  gained  company  after 
company  and,  finally,  on  Saturday  only  one  regiment  remained 
loyal.  This  regiment  took  up  its  quarters  across  the  Liteinaya 
with  machine  guns  and  waited.  Meanwhile  all  the  officers 
had  had  their  swords  taken  away  and  those  who  resisted  were 
killed.  The  policemen  were  locked  up  in  a  big  building  and 
burned  alive.  That  seems  to  have  been  the  only  really  bloody 
slaughter. 

"H.  was  passing  a  soldier  on  guard ;  as  he  passed,  a  student 
grabbed  the  soldier's  gun  and  killed  him  with  his  own  bayonet 
and  was  himself  killed  by  an  officer's  pistol  instantaneously. 
On  Saturday  evening  and  Sunday  morning  the  revolting  regi- 
ments fought  the  one  loyal  regiment  in  the  following  way : 
riding  in  great  motor  trucks  (they  had  seized  all  the  motors 
and  artillery)  they  dashed  down  the  Liteinaya,  shooting,  then 
turned  up  a  side  street  and  gained  cover,  then  turned  back 
into  the  Liteinaya  and  repeated  the  performance.  On  Sunday 
morning  H.  was  innocently  walking  up  the  Liteinaya  when 
he  suddenly  heard  the  machine-guns  fairly  roar  out  and  he 
dodged  behind  a  buttress  and  saw  the  whole  thing.  Pools  of 
blood  and  dead  everywhere.  When  he  left  on  Sunday  night, 
the  scene  was  very  dramatic.  A  tremendous  searchlight  on 
the  Admiralty  tower  made  the  Nevsky  as  bright  as  day,  and 
cavalry  were  patrolling  up  and  down  the  street ;  great  red 
glares  lit  up  the  sky  from  burning  buildings;  machine-guns 
and  rifles  rattled  occasionally  and,  now  and  then,  field  guns 
on  the  Nevsky  boomed  out  and  bullets  went  screaming  by, 
skipping  along  over  the  snow.     In  the  square  at  the  station 


234 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


was  a  vast  mob  howling  bloody  murder.  Anarchy  seemed  im- 
minent. As  you  know,  however,  that  was  the  last  day  of  the 
disorders ;  on  Monday  all  was  organized  and  the  Tzar  had  been 
called  back  from  the  front  by  the  very  Duma  which  he  had 
dissolved. 

"When  H.  arrived  in  Moscow  on  Monday  morning  I  was 
having  my  breakfast  and  he  told  me  the  news.     I  was  fairly 


Moscow  Municipal  Duma  Building.    The  Moscow  center  of  the 
Revolution  in  March,  1917. 

knocked  out,  for  it  was  indeed  news  to  me.  Of  course,  the 
same  news  came  down  with  him  on  the  train,  and,  as  we  were 
talking,  a  crowd  of  students  went  by  the  hotel  singing.  I 
shall  never  forget  the  thrill.  The  Revolution  was  on  here,  too. 
There  were  crowds  of  people  in  front  of  the  Duma  (city 
council)  which  is  situated  opposite  the  Sacred  Yellow  Gate 
which  leads  to  the  Red  Square.  On  the  Duma  itself  the  red 
flag  was  flying.  We  mingled  with  the  crowds  and  watched. 
Troops  began  marching.  The  soldiers  grimly  enough  and 
the  people  wheedling  them  as  they  walked  alongside,  begging 
them  not  to  shoot  and  saying  that  all  they  wanted  was  bread; 
and  the  appeals  to  refrain  from  shooting  were  not  made  from 


The  March  Revolution  235 


fear.  As  we  watched,  a  squadron  of  cavalry  galloped  in  forma- 
tion of  fours  through  the  gate,  formed  in  a  long  line,  two  deep, 
and  charged  the  crowd,  and  the  crowd  did  not  move  an  inchr 
did  not  even  sway.  Once  in  a  while,  one  of  the  marching 
soldiers  would  wave  his  hat  and  the  crowd  would  cheer 
wildly.  It  seemed  to  dread  bloodshed,  but  to  be  ready  to 
stand  anything  if  the  test  should  come.  The  soldiers  lined  the 
Red  Square,  both  infantry  and  cavalry,  and  a  crowd  of,  per- 
haps, ten  thousand  people  stood  around,  mostly  students, 
arguing  with  the  soldiers.  So  the  situation  remained  through 
Monday  night. 

"On  Tuesday  morning  things  were  stirring  early.  The 
streets  leading  to  the  Duma  Square  were  filled  with  masses  of 
strangely  silent  people ;  students  everywhere  kept  marvellous 
order.  The  roadway  was  kept  open.  No  one  was  allowed  in 
the  Red  Square  or  in  the  path  of  the  troops  or  in  the  Duma 
Square.  They  realized  well  that,  if  a  great  mob  collected  in 
the  squares,  and  became  entangled  with  the  soldiers,  great 
disturbances  would  follow.  This  must  be  avoided,  and  the 
students  controlled  the  crowd  in  a  good-humored,  cheerful 
way,  and  no  one  was  angry  as  yet.  One  angry  word  from  an 
officer,  a  stray  shot,  or  a  drunken  brawler  would  at  that  stage 
have  meant  a  bloody  riot.  Thanks  to  the  students'  wonderful 
organization,  however,  it  never  occurred.  They  were  every- 
where. Some  linking  arms  and  holding  back  the  crowd ; 
others  walking  through  the  crowd  urging  temperance  and 
patience;  others  talking  with  the  soldiers.  During  all  of 
Tuesday,  detachments  deserted  and  came  over  to  the  crowd. 
and,  as  they  marched  along  shouting  their  wonderful  marching 
songs,  the  crowd  cheered  them  wildly.  All  day  this  went  on. 
and  by  night-time  the  Duma  Square  was  packed  with  men. 
Perfect  discipline  had  been  maintained  all  day.  The  crowd 
was  kept  in  the  streets,  not  allowed  to  mass  in  the  squares, 
while  the  garrison  was  slowly  coming  over. 

"On  Wednesday  morning  the  first  company  of  Gossacks  rode 
in.  They  were  wildly  cheered.  All  felt  now  that  the  Revolution 
had  nothing  to  fear  if  the  hated  Cossacks  were  on  their  side. 
During  the  morning  they  acquired  three  field-guns  and  much 


236  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

cavalry.  At  five  o'clock  they  pointed  a  field-gun  at  the  Kremlin 
Gate,  massed  their  soldiers,  and  gave  the  regulars  five  minutes 
to  surrender.  The  Kremlin  surrendered,  then  the  Manege, 
and  now.  without  a  single  shot  being  fired,  the  Revolution  was 
in  control  of  Moscow.  As  fast  as  the  old  Government  brought 
in  outside  regiments,  they  went  over  to  the  people.  The  sight 
on  Wednesday  night  can  never  be  forgotten — the  vast,  cheer- 
ing crowds,  the  deep-throated  singing  of  the  marching  soldiers, 
the  stacked  arms  and  bivouac  fires  in  the  Duma  Square,  the 
artillery  commanding  the  approaches.  There  were  now  about 
fifteen  guns  in  the  Square,  with  their  caissons.  All  the  streets 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  were  packed  with  crowds,  and 
then  more  crowds  cheering,  cheering,  almost  ready  to  cry  with 
joy,  laughing  and  talking  quietly  together,  as  Russians  do. 
All  through,  there  had  been  no  loud  yelling — either  cheering  or 
quiet  talking.  No  uproariousness,  no  hooliganism,  and  this 
you  could  understand  when  you  looked  at  the  crowd.  They 
all  seemed  prosperous  and  well-to-do.  All  in  furs.  No  roughs 
or  toughs.  All  either  good  old  mujiks  or  the  intelligentsia.  And 
all  so  very  happy.  Every  one  went  home  at  night.  When  I 
went  out  this  morning,  the  Revolution  was  over.  Constitutional 
government  was  assured,  and  the  whole  people  began  to  make 
holiday. 

"If  there  had  been  masses  yesterday,  what  were  there  to-day? 
The  squares  were  a  solid  mass,  and  the  streets  also.  I  made 
my  way  through  it  to  a  small  hill  looking  down  on  the  square 
of  the  Great  Theatre,  and  the  streets  leading  to  it.  A  vast 
river  of  people  was  flowing  down  the  hill  with  a  band  at  its 
head,  playing  the  Marseillaise ;  the  cheering  was  one  solid 
roar,  and,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  was  a  vast  mass  of  men 
and  women,  all  carrying  red  flags.  Various  lanes  were  kept 
open  by  the  students,  and  down  these  marched  the  soldiers, 
also  processions  of  all  kinds,  some  of  women,  usually  singing 
the  Marseillaise,  some  of  auto-trucks  filled  with  officers  and 
students  waving  red  flags,  some  of  fire  engines.  It  was  all  a 
great  holiday.  I  did  not  hear  an  angry  voice  or  see  an  angry 
face  all  day.  Gradually  they  began  to  disperse,  and  by  six 
o'clock  they  were  all  quiet  again.     Perfect  order  had  been 


The  March  Revolution.  237 


maintained.  One  or  two  men  had  tried  to  start  a  pogrom. 
They  were  immediately  arrested.  A  little  boy  near  me  yelled 
out  'Oorah !'  An  officer  turned  round  and  said  'Nye  kreetchi, 
maltchik'  (don't  scream,  little  boy)  ;  that  is  the  motto  of  the 
Revolution;  noise  and  disturbance  were  frowned  upon. 

"Such  has  been  the  chronological  sequence  of  events  in  Petro- 
grad  and  Moscow.  Minor  details  have  not  been  lacking.  Yes- 
terday in  the  hotel  at  lunch,  a  committee  came  up,  and  ordered 
the  kitchen  closed,  and  most  of  the  waiters  rushed  out  into 
the  street,  our  waiter  brandishing  his  fist  in  the  face  of  the 
manager  as  he  went.  To-day  he  brought  us  breakfast  as  if 
nothing  had  happened.  This  morning  they  brought  in  all  the 
political  prisoners,  old,  haggard  men,  white  hair,  all  that  polit- 
ical prisoners  should  be,  to  the  Duma,  two  trucks  full  of  them, 
and  the  crowd  wept  as  they  went  past.  It  was  all  very  won- 
derful. At  first  the  crowds  were  worried  and  afraid,  gradually 
they  became  more  and  more  confident  and  good-natured,  and, 
on  the  last  day,  the  flags  were  all  red,  the  crowds  all  cheering, 
and  the  soldiers  all  singing.  I  hope  never  to  forget  it.  And 
all  to-day  the  snow  is  quietly  falling. 

"It  seems  to  me  as  if  a  great  weight  were  lifted  off  Russia. 
No  more  Germans  in  control ;  no  more  secret  police ;  no  more 
passports;  freedom  of  the  press.  At  last,  they  say.  our 
country  is  going  to  develop  ;  no  longer  are  we  under  the  thumb 
of  Germany ;  as  a  united  people  and  nation  we  are  going  to 
fulfil  our  destiny,  and  we  are  going  to  make  an  end  to  the  war 
by  throwing  the  whole  of  Russia's  strength  into  it,  unham- 
pered by  Germans.  The  last  few  years  have  seemed  a  horrid 
nightmare  as  they  struggled  under  the  thumb  of  Germany  ; 
now  they  have  shaken  themselves  free  and  breathe  again. 
How  proud  they  are  of  their  Revolution!  'Look  how  cleverly 
we  did  it!  No  bloodshed!  No  disagreeableness !'  Even  as 
I  write  a  great  chorus  bursts  out,  as  soldiers  go  marching  by, 
a  wonderful  chorus  that  dies  in  the  distance.  It  is  more  than 
I  can  write  about.  It  is  so  great  and  magnificent  a  sight 
that  we  are  both  of  us  knocked  out  and  speechless." 


?  >  :.:     i:  h  o  ?'     n  p  a  3  n  .  '  .:  ;    ; 

rPASRAKK     POOCS.8KAT0     rOCy^APCT^A . 

CTapbiS  noppflOKi,   Hacjrfcfile  Bupo,;n£iuarocp  eftuonepxaBis, 
Hapo^HYK)  ch/iy,    paatfiiTH. 

LH  n^p?.-ppoTt  3aBepun^i  ^c.iri-    rogH  Cop  ok.    nowife 

Jm    CHJIb!    H    CT0H211i9fl    Haiiefi    pO^MH^   SM3H"1    H    CBOtfOflK 

^rixt  ayimHxi  e*  chhobi 

.I7  0kt«6dh  1905  V .  ,K&x&Jt0Ch ,   noOt^a  6bi.ua  o,4epKaHa     Rohctm- 

vqioH  wfi  CTpofl  6l:i»  npoB03rjia;_eHi.   !;c    awn  .Jiimei'ipH<fc4i- 

kibo  noSflfl  k     3HHyxfleHHHfl  yc^ynKH,    onpaBHBwneb  otx  nepeaxi. 

[aooBt  h»  ia*a  ctpjfiL  nar  dHyjo  oOtrecTseHHVXi  po3Kbt  ^orpoiwaMn, 

"  iff?       -^ 
no:a„HOr)  pacnpaso«  h  KpoBaBMiH  K&3HAUH  ic%  n^pBa^c  me 

t  CToeu/Uiacb  pa-rronTaTB  KapoH,;aBiiiyiocfl  CECCjofty.  Ke  cmot^s 

bcb  ycn^ifl  crapt  J?  BiiacTH,   HepBan  rocy^apcrseHHaH  /{ywa 

:.VMtJia  BhipaaHro  o  HOSHbia  Hapo^HiiH  TpetK    aHlR.    .via  6-uib.  pac- 

tyaieHa.   ::e  rt^'^i-CB  noSi^H  h  BTopafl  ^yua.   8-b  HapymBHie  Ochob 

•itlXi    8aXuHOBi    BepXOr.Hc.K    EJiaOTb    H3MiHH,ia    R3<SjipaT PJI  =  l:b:Si    3aKQH£ 

c*  e&jibh  coa^aTb  noOiytDHyffl  eS  r",YMy  H  Ei  Teieaie  pfffla  jrojoBt, 
H^np^pHBHO  (5cpHCB  ci  Hapo^HHMH  CTpeM^^HinMH .  Topuo?H^a  npeo<5 
pa3CB  hih  ^cbc-r.  dhctho  eiitiuiaoL  yflepsaTB  c^apbifl  ymia^B.He- 
flaBaBfflifl  pa-^BepHyTbCP  ,;yxoBHoS  moith  v  OBflftCTBeH'icJi  aM3H»r  Ha 
poAa.  'i 
BcnuxHyjia.  BOiiHa.  5ci  npaBHTejibCTBa  Sana^HO  E^poira  noyixnui 
.to  nofifcau  moshc  ROCrKPHyTB  toji!>ko  Be^jmatoHMi  HanpaseH  i  eiit, 

BCBXB    CHJI1    H    nOJIHbiMS      SflHHeH  16111    Ci    HapOflOMl.     Chh    npKBJieK.W 

bti  ci»»  cocTaBi  Han(5o;iBe  flapoBHTHXi.  h  (5e3ynp^-.HHXi  flB^Te^efl, 

«jvx;;«Jica 
nc!!MTaoML;xi  HacefleHi^i.   ::HKOJiaH   II,   in.npesHPvv  ayxatuw-h  ofJ- 

eniX  ci  Hapo;;OMi  n-fi>    a  in   Jimiib  o  tosii.,   mtoCh  BJiacTb  ocTaBa 

iaBb  Bi  pyxaxi  npHBepxeHneB*  c  ?aparc   nopn;yca.   Chi  Haxc^MJiT. 

HXB    CpenH    HH3B0n0K.10HHKXI,,     0JI4HHXI,     nOpOK)    5f>5ieCTHHX*    «  .  A©», 

He  cnocoGHuxi  no^HRTbCH  ^o  noHH^aHiH  rocyrtapc  'BeBHiMi  H.y«Al>. 
Jljfli  3th  fiyuajiH  o6i  oahoH  CBoeM  BUPOftt,   npBHeCp^ra^H  Rtnoxii 

HapOflH&J!    OCOpOHbl,    a    HHbie    H3i    HllX*,     HhX    HOTOpHKR    HUBtA    H6      M9- 

r^a,;HTCP  H3i  Hapo^Hofl     naMHTH,   npe~i  .iHuoui  Bpara  TopreBajin 

Facsimile  of  the  project  of  the  first  appeal  issued  by  the  Provisional 
Government  to  the  citizens  of  free  Russia.  The  project  was  prepared 
by  Prof.  P.  I.  Novgorodtzev;  the  corrections  in  pencil  were  made  by 
X.  V.  Xekrasov,  the  Minister  of  Means  of  Communication  in  the 
Provisional  Government,  and  the  corrections  in  ink — by  Prof.  P.  N. 
Miliukov,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Provisional  Government. 

The  translation  of  this  document  is  given  on  pp.  248-251. 


CV^bColO    pOSHHH    «    ?anflTH3JIH    CefiK    H3UIHO10.     M    aa    CnHHOK)    BTOrO 

h  i!  rosHaro  npab  rejibCTBa  Bee  yEipeHHte  yKptn^nJiaci,  6e30TBir 
CTBeH-aH  CHJia  Teunux*  npoxoflHuqeBi,   pacnyTHHXt  v.  npec?ynHbixb 
Ohh  HanHa'-<ajiH  h  cutnanis  mhhuctpobi, Kxi  HeBtsecTBen.bia  rojioci 
paaptcfajii  rccyaapcrBeHHtw  fii^a.    ~py^6a  h  S^h30ctb  ci  hhmh 
Jtervia  n03opcui  Ha  hma  pyccxaro  HMnepa-ropa  h  orBpaT/Jia  c 

TO    BCiXl    4eCTHhlXi    CHHGBfc    pOflHHH. 

Hama  Hapo^Haro  Tepnfc.His     nepeno.iHH.iacB.   Mcry«ifl8  noptiBb 

cnJioTJuii  BO-e^HHo  Bctxi  rpa^aHi.   Ha  cropoHi  u,o.pn  He  \Han\ioci 

HKBoro.   OcTaBseHHHA  bc^hh  h  coaHaBas  CBoe  6erknie  ohi  OTpeK- 

ch  OTi  npecTOJia  sa  ceCn  h  3a  cnHa  h  nepe^ajis  Hac^t^ie  CBoe 

CpaTv.   Be^jr-ciS  Khh3B  Unx&v.m  A/reKcaHapcBmi.  OTKaaa-ica  socnpi- 

HTb  BepxoEHyio  EJiacTb.   C'Hi  np::3Hajii,    mto  Hb>Hi  TO^bKO  bojih  Hapq 

H&.  MoaeTi  onp^iJiHT     -Hfouy  npas Tenia  h  ptmHTb  c.-^bdy  npecrcia 

i 
Bctxi  rpas^aHi  ^epsaBtj  PocciSiCKoJt  OHb  npocHTb  no^HHHTbca  3pa 

iieHHOiA^-FpaBHTe^bCTBy,    BOSHHKoeMy  n     no"HHy  "pCv-apCTseHHoft 

.^ywH  a  ofijieMeKHCMy  Bcew  nojiHOTOto  BJiacTH. 

Bo   nMH  *ojira  nepn^x  pq-jihck),    BpeMeH-oe  Up.  BHTeJibC?BO  : 

juro  Ha  ce<5ff  THKe^oe   6pe: a   stoH   BJiac~       h  nepe^i  jihiiom     napo- 

^a  hhhI.  HeceTi  OTBbTCTBeH  octb  sa  ero  cy^bSy.   Ghc   cno*e*i  hc- 

HOJIHHTb    CBOM    „OJiri>    Jl^ub    HSpnaa    CHJIbI    Bi    C03HaHiH    e^HHeHlH 

Cb  ^"cy^apCTBeHuio  r,;uo;  u  ei  uorynefi  nofl,,BpHKi  pygccKoJt  ap- 
MiH,   TpyrtH^HxcH  uacet  h  oC^eCTBeHHKii  tpraH.aaiiiR. 

r^aBHO.H)  CBoe«3  3a#a^eio  3peMe:-Hoe  npaBnre;ibC  ~eo  no  maen  co- 
3»m  bi  bo3mosho  xpaTqafi    ifi  cpcK-b  y,.pe,;HTe.ibHaro  CoSpaHia.CHO 
(Sy^eTi  coaBaHo  Hay  Ha"  jiaxi  BceoOaaro,    npauoro,    paBHaro   h 
TaiiHarc  ro-ioccEaHia  h  vcTaHOBHTi  OcHCBHKe  "aKOHU  6y;;yiraro  ro- 
cy^apcrBeHHaro  ctdok,    yrofiKaro  Hapo^y. 

He  fionyCKas  B03M03H:,L;i,    mto6u  oti>  yiacTia  s%  suCopaxb  ycrpa 
HeHH  ChiJiH  p,o6jiecTHue   3amHTH  kh  po^hhl;,    huh%  npc^KEa;orie  kpobb 
Ha  nojiHXi  cpawteHiti,    B^eMPHHoe  lip  BKTe^bcrBO  ycTaHOBHTi  r. 
■AQKi,    o6esneHMBa:-o:::iS   sto  yuacTie. 

BpeMeHHoe  noaBHTe^^  c  ^eo  He  npH3BaH0  ki  paapiuieHiio  e 
Ha^ptBtL'HXi  saKOHO^aTeibHKXi  BonpocoBi.    ?to   aa-aia 
Haro   3oC  ania   h  Tt  t>  3aK0H0-aTe.ibHiiXb  yfeTai!OE^eHizf ,   kotoduh 
Cyflytb  HMb  coiaaHbi.   Ho  BpeMeHHoe  H^aBHTeJibCTBO  CiHT;ien  Henp*> 

MtHHUMi    CBOHMl    AOJirOVb    «*^    Hh!Ht    86    OGyieCTBHTb    n-.,1Hy!0    awHHCTl 


Facsimile  of  the  project  of  the  first  appeal  issued  by  the  Provisional 
Government  to  the  citizens  of  free  Russia,  page  2. 


■■■ 


H    i,e06X0flHMUXI> 

flJIfl    flOC-HK9HiH 
eK)    BeJlKKMh   Ha- 

qiOHa^bHhixi  na- 
AaMfc. 


no  A^aMi  nojiHTHuecKHMi  h  pe;mrio3BHM*,   oCesnemrrfc  BaceJieaiw 
npaBa  rpaH^aHCKoH  cboOoah  h  rpastflaHCKaro  paBeHCTBe.  h  bb^ctb 
BBeoCmee  H3(5HpaTe;ibH0e  upaBO  npa  BHtfopaxi  +fr  opraH^M*CTHaro 
cainoynpaB^eHiH. 

Ho  bo  rJiaBi  B^txt  HapoflHKxi  sa^am       hhh*  ctohti  BeJiHiaflnaw 
saflaija  no(5i>AOHocHaro  OKOHManifl  boRhh  b*  eaHHeHiH  c*  HaraauH 

BtpHUMH    H    p,06neC,VHUUV.    COSOSHHKaMH.    MH    BOHJ0MI,    KaK       H    OHB,    H6 

pa„H  pacujapeHiK  rpaHuqs  rocyflapcTBa,  a  p,Jia  cosAaHis  yanoBiS 
npoMtiaro  MHpa,   cooTBtTCi'Bywmaro  flocroHHCTBy  BeJiHKoJ!  flepKaBH. 

rpax^aHe  PoceiCKaro  rosryAapcTBa'./HacpynHBHiy*)  HHHt  HCTopw 
^ecr-ryio  MHHyTy  oOieAHHeHiewi  h  HanpflseHieui  BCixi  hoidhxi  chji* 
noMOKewi.  BejiHKOMy  no^BHry  HameB  repoBcKoJI  apian  cpaaaiomfcji 
Ha  ^poH^i..  BnepeflH  ei?e  npeflCTOHTi  He  Majto  TtfrocTell  a  JtHiaeHid 
Mapjjcb  ch  #k  H'H3(5taHocTb.,K),  TepniitHBjfo  nepeaoc/r  hx*,  Cyfleu* 
noMHHTb,  «jto  To^bKO  ynopHbim  H  CaMOO^TBepmeHHHHl  Tpyjfowi, 
noTeneHHO  co3flaK>TCH  .ycjiOBis  hoboM  nymneR  hhshh. 

K*  &TOMy  Tpy^y  Bctxt  naci  npK3HBaeTi  Poecisl 


Facsimile  of  the. project  of  the  first  appeal  issued  by  the  Provisional 
Government  to  the  citizens  of  free  Russia,  page  3. 


Orb  BpeMBHHaro  BpnenbCTBa. 


rOAH   6opt6«. 

Arroifb  |7  0ar«Cp«  IBOS  mi 
JtoetM  </<taauM  flu-in  k«ctwt>  tUui 

Bmw ^nVhBH'l*   uujK»am>i-*b   WW' 

Biopyw  A»»y  •wenir.uTiJrc  ?•*>< 
cn»  paamion^agjuiK8  Jima  in 


*ro  n»yj»perM! 

anri    pycctuiro  aapoAa   miuucjui 
~l*.  BeawdO  iifpfaopoTb  .<«»•  pm 

,.teat*ui>  upof.yanBimixcM  imptu 
^Ooflftim.tr.t.iit.miH  win  W  Cum 
..ri'ocyjiapcTBCuiiiui  iiyna.  Gu;w 
..••  u^iiftf  nnfinpnrb  BQifD-aajwciuyi 


upnl 
rtn.  y  h»i 

»uepi  ii_.  i  < 

aKA3UBH.HK 
tiu.iA  rtfmr* 


u<t  .rrtniMa.iitcb.  mi  u. 
u.ift  Bb  iiyiiuiy  npoiu 
imrrHuuH  m  bc.iiu.ioi 
nt..  aacrajwi  «e  bi.  coei 


I  ilt'-ILBOCHi.     Bli 


■"I- 


tt.  Hftjmjijm,,  (toiyiacTHon  ki>  ey.it/»t.  p-u 

poJWitl     Vi-IUlU     Upklill,    IRflUmiDHH'rt      II"  l 
Bit    UpM3JJUH4    B&pOAUarO   lI(WMCTiiLHTivU.CUHi 

soft  onacHocru,  Be  6ii.ni  Bb  ctnaxi,  itaupa 
crw)  a*  itvfb  esmMBlfl  ci.  napoaoiil*.  U  t;1 
aftnrrahimi  m  itpaBrrre.Tirt  nocTHLUi-iin  6u 
cavt.  _i".i«.i-n-b  (ibtn,  aaafb  BJim*Ti.  bi.  eeo 
HaptiAt*),  niKniuKiiymn*   ooamsntarb '  mxjki 
,fly»tu  .......m-iu  U^M-imoe  npawiTcibcrao, 

oralncTBflBBbnn.  aojirwrb  ocyiflecrmin.    91 

nyrii  CBoOojiiiiro  rpaitaaaoK/irf)  ycrpoeabi, 

ripaDUTL'.TbcTBO  ntpirn».  hto  jiyxi.  bu 

H«pO;i«    <*v   CTBpOK*    B.tACTbK),   OHptJ-IHTl.     li 

DpaBiiTr.ibcTBo  ci.  t-Boeft  etopoeu    npn.ioa 

M&tfh  Hts-OxoJUDJUMIi  xin  Tom,   itcCm  30 

lipawrrftHbciBO  oyjwrb  taflTD    \p*»mm 


ri-TacTui.    Uct.   no 

j.bfla,  El  KOTOpVF 
Lridro  poena. [i  i 
t   >i   uorpjwweA    d 


(.  hc  <iC<-be,iUHr\i\ir)tt 
iopt.  iioprtta.  Ilu  re- 
ivTpcHflfft     paxpyzu. 


i.«aR8UBUiAnx'ff  tifp^iT.  amum*  ii/iiUoua.i!.- 
•"•u&uiaro  HMiifparopn  n  t-ro  trpnBiiTe.ib- 
PoccJa  npoTiio(i-tai;oiiiiu\tij   u    oaryftiuMii 

i'-p«jn.     BCHHaftUIHUH     Cil.TfTUlJIMJI,     HdpO.Tb 

i. it  EAHHoaymayft  pcsonntdoimuJI  ni>pwai, 
i'iM«iiTa,    it    pf.uiii'ioi:TL    rocyaapcTaeaacB 


-lapcijiHUJi  it 


ore  imTplOTiiawa,  nposaitBunfica 
..I'Tntuxi  co.-i.aari.  naniiixt.  Ha  n 
i.  m  t  oiuiq  kt.  o<5P3neseoIio  aa 
ni  nonny  ao  noGtunoro  i.<nma. 

" ■itJ»i.TF#.!^WH!f      TMr],     .  i,      j|i\THUtl 


cirt.T.n 


i.TB   CpUHB. 


t 


u  rt>  numirt  ctpshu  on.  apsra-  Bti&inaaro,  npaaureJifcCTBo  rt  : 
xpeua  aOHTCTb  neprtflaipp  cbocw  (.'f-naonHocTb©  W-purb   nyrt  m,   BbipajK«Hiio  bo.th  ! 

pOJSBOft 

HBTWlt.J 


oOpaaa  iipaBAeutji  h  coaosetll  nb  bosmqkio  Kpartaflmifl  cpom>l>ipe- 
e  loGpaHie  Ha  or.iioat.  Bceo^iunro  npaworo,  paetmro  ir  raflaaro  ro.TOcoaaBiH,  ooea- 
■tacTle  b^  auOopax 


AQ&iecTawn  aaiatiT 
i.jhxu  epa«eniil.  y^pcjwrenbHoa  Cofip^itif 
.iui«-  rtpan-k  iif^ufi.ifMtJfl  ochoou  np«B,  pn 
i»t  bod  nuKscTb  ni^Tymaro   crpaity  6einpn^ 
iob  Hapcoa  a-i.  nuui.y  t«>pjbi«.  napoiiiNM 

T,     ll'i/jS'UHMIjm.     UPMtfXICHU".     tvafi  'a-'     • 
crpaity  TBepjuuu  nopuautt,  "i  pni.jjBDSin'tn 
paacHCTB",  jiiC-u  ajtJocttkBmh  w  bmt.  rpajnpi!'<,i 


poaHBM,  npo-iiiBano: 
;j.aacn.   Tajcxe  ocooaaur   ja* 
oucTBa  u  ceoeoau. 

I,     CTtCBJBI&marO    CBOCCAHHfl 

noTpacealfl,  BpeMftBaoe  nlmr 


ycTaaoaT  hii*mt»  lt('p»^,  ofleaoewBaKHamrfc  acttru 
maro  iw^npaiMbwaro  npaBa,  ynacTie    bt>  abiCopa^ 

Bt  Miisyry  oeaorto)Cii»*Bln  napojuaro  i 
»«io*raBacrb  rtrv  kto  bi.  6opV»t 
x«pTBOf>  «rrirrf,ibBoft  cTftpoft  i 
atwrwb  B^pMytt  ct»  oosctomi.  i 
«.ian.  pojitBU. 


>  Hpejirre.ibnaro   CoCpeBi*. 
>iu  rpaacjaiintyu  CBotfoay  n  rpaxaan- 

IMI.  tWCOSOO   llpOftE-lBTt.  CBOU  JVXOB- 

;n.  II|*aBtrre.ii.cTBo    oaaflonirca  Tajcate 

I.C.lntlfiVJl.    pftBUOi*,    BB     OCMOBtl     BOPOO"- 

•piuHOBi>  vraontaro  caiioyupaaJieinii. 
n.  0.taroro3'6flHoo  tipinnaTCibHivrbio 
1  i;m  n  pp.iiirirnuua  yt5-BayieHia  na,T* 
UpaniJT»?.ibCTBO  co'iien.  pa^oeTauui 
aTnn««U   wtxi   crpaaa-ibacBi.   sa 


npsamre**  t['<   oajuwBa«BO  rtpor,  tto  odo  6y- 

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nipMinnM  iduini  111  n  enacTbe  P«rtn  B%  ir«i  afcpt  "»••  ifpnax-Ti.  Coapoci*.  Toisao 
n.  Apyxei>»rb  s^QuapojiiOM-v  roa*flcr»in  caoaitv  y>  imiaMi  onft  Bit.iun,  3anon  ropxTTsa 
soaaro  nnpAaKa 


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facsimile  of  the  first  proof  of  the  first  appeal  issued  by  the  Provisional 
Government  to  the  citizens  of  free  Russia. 


242  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

THE  first  Provisional  Government  was  composed  as  fol- 
lows:  Prime  Minister — Prince  G.  E.  Lvov,  former  Presi- 
dent of  the  All-Russian  Zemstvos  Union;  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs — Professor  Paul  N.  Miliukov  ;  Minister  of  War 
and  Navy — A.  I.  Guchkov;  Minister  of  Finance — M.  I.  Terest- 
chenko ;  Minister  of  Justice — A.  F.  Kerensky  ;  Minister  of 
Trade  and  Commerce — A.  I.  Konovalov ;  Minister  of  Agricul- 
ture— A.  I.  Shingariev ;  Minister  of  Means  of  Communication 
— N.  Y.  Nekrasov;  Minister  of  Education — Professor  A.  A. 
Manuilov;  State  Comptroller — M.  Godniev ;  Procurator  of  the 
Holy  Synod — N.  V.  Lvov. 

The  composition  of  the  first  Cabinet  shows  clearly  the 
important  role  which  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma 
played  in  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution.  Two  factors  in- 
fluenced the  composition  of  the  Cabinet :  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Duma,  a  well  organized  and  a  stable  body,  and 
the  Council  of  Workingmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  which 
had  just  then  come  into  being.  The  Revolutionary  Democracy 
was  not  yet  properly  organized,  and  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Duma  was  given  almost  carte  blanche  in  making  up 
the  Cabinet.  Therefore,  the  first  Cabinet  reflected  more  the 
proportional  forces  of  the  different  parties  in  the  Duma,  which 
had  been  elected  on  the  basis  of  extremely  undemocratic 
suffrage,  than  their  relative  power  in  the  country.  The  first 
Cabinet  consisted  of  seven  Constitutional-Democrats,  three 
Octobrists  and  one  Socialist — A.  F.  Kerensky.  Such  a  com- 
position was  not  very  fortunate  and  contained  in  itself  the 
possibility  for  future  conflicts. 

The  first  act  of  the  Provisional  Government  was  the  follow- 
ing appeal,  dated  March  18,  1917: 

"Citizens :  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma,  with 
the  aid  and  support  of  the  garrison  of  the  capital  and  its  in- 
habitants, has  succeeded  in  triumphing  over  the  obnoxious 
forces  of  the  old  regime  so  that  we  can  proceed  to  a  more  stable 
organization  of  the  executive  power,  with  men  whose  past 
political  activity  assures  them  the  country's  confidence. 

The  new  Cabinet  will  base  its  policy  on  the  following 
principles : 


H3B-&CTIH 

2-3-ro  MapTa  1917  r.      JVq  6-7.      BE3nJlATH0. 


An  historical  copy  of  "Izvestia''  (News),  a  revolutionary  publication 
born  with  the  Revolution.  This  copy  contains  the  announcement  of 
the  creation  of  the  Provisional  Government,  the  first  Appeal  of  the  new 
Government  and  the  speeches  of  P.  N.  Miliukov  and  A.  F.  Kerensky. 


The  March  Revolution  245 


First — An  immediate  general  amnesty  for  all  political  and 
religious  offenses,  including  terrorist  acts  and  military  and 
agrarian   offenses. 

Second- — Liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press ;  freedom  for 
alliances,  unions,  and  strikes,  with  the  extension  of  these  liber- 
ties to  military  officials,  within  the  limits  admitted  by  military 
requirements. 

Third — Abolition  of  all  social,  religious,  and  national  re- 
strictions. 

Fourth — To  proceed  forthwith  to  the  preparation  and  con- 
vocation of  a  Constituent  Assembly,  based  on  universal  suf- 
frage. This  Assembly  will  establish  a  stable  governmental 
regime. 

Fifth — The  substitution  of  the  police  by  a  national  militia, 
with  chiefs  to  be  elected  and  responsible  to  the  Municipalities. 

Sixth — Communal  elections  to  be  based  on  universal,  direct, 
equal  and  secret  suffrage. 

Seventh — The  troops  which  participated  in  the  Revolution- 
ary Movement  will  not  be  disarmed,  but  will  remain  in  Petro- 
grad. 

Eighth — While  maintaining  strict  military  discipline  for 
troops  in  active  service,  it  is  desirable  to  abrogate  for  soldiers 
all  restrictions  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil  rights  accorded  other 
citizens. 

"The  Provisional  Government  desires  to  add  that  it  has  no 
intention  of  taking  advantage  of  war  conditions  to  delay 
the  realization  of  the  measures  of  reform  above  mentioned." 

The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  P.  N.  Miliukov,  gave 
official  notice  of  the  Revolution  to  the  world,  on  March  18, 
receiving  the  diplomatic  representatives  of  the  Allies.'  His 
address,  transmitted  by  cable  to  all  Russian  diplomats  abroad, 
was  as  follows : 

"The  news  transmitted  by  the  Petrograd  Telegraphic 
Agency  already  has  acquainted  you  with  the  events  of  the  last 
few.  days  and  the  fall  of  the  old  political  regime  in  Russia, 
which  collapsed  lamentably  in  the  face  of  popular  indignation 
provoked  by  its  carelessness,  its  abuses,  and  its  criminal  lack 


246 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


of  foresight.  The  unanimity  of  resentment  which  the  order  of 
things  now  at  an  end  had  aroused  among  all  healthy  elements 
of  the  nation,  has  considerably  facilitated  the  crisis.  All  these 
elements  having  rallied  with  enthusiasm  to  the  noble  flag  of 
Revolution,  and  the  Army  having  lent  them  its  speedy  and 
effective  support,  the  National  Movement  obtained  decisive 
victory  within  eight  days. 


"I  will  sell  the  bread  and  I  will  buy  a  Liberty  bond" — a  revolutionary 

poster  calling  upon  the  citizens  of  free  Russia  to 

subscribe  to  the  Liberty  Loan. 

"This  rapidity  of  realization  fortunately  made  it  possible  to 
reduce  the  number  of  victims  to  a  figure  unprecedentedly  small, 
in  the  annals  of  upheavals  of  such  extent  and  importance. 

"By  an  act  dated  from  Pskov,  March  15,  Emperor  Nicholas 
renounced  the  throne  for  himself  and  his  heir.  Grand 
Duke  Alexis  Nikolaievich,  in  favor  of  Grand  Duke  Michael 
Alexandrovich.  In  reply  to  a  notification  which  was  made  to 
him  of  this  act,  Grand  Duke  Michael  Alexandrovich,  by  an 
act  dated  Petrograd,  March  16,  in  his  turn,  renounced  assump- 
tion  of   supreme   power   until    the   time   when   a    Constituent 


The  March  Revolution  247 


Assembly,  created  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage,  should 
have  established  a  form  of  government  and  new  fundamental 
laws  for  Russia.  By  this  same  act,  Michael  Alexandrovich 
invited  the  citizens  of  Russia,  pending  a  definite  manifestation 
of  the  national  will,  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government.  The  composition  of  the  Provisional 
Government  and  its  political  program  have  been  published  and 
transmitted  to  foreign  countries. 

"This  Government,  which  assumes  power  at  the  moment 
of  the  greatest  external  and  internal  crisis  which  Russia  has 
known  in  the  course  of  her  history,  is  fully  conscious  of  the 
immense  responsibility  it  incurs.  It  will  apply  itself  first  to 
repairing  the  overwhelming  errors  bequeathed  to  it  by  the 
past,  to  insuring  order  and  tranquillity  in  the  country,  and, 
finally,  to  preparing  the  conditions  necessary  in  order  that  the 
sovereign  will  of  the  nation  may  be  freely  pronounced  as  to  its 
future  fate. 

"In  the  domain  of  foreign  policy,  the  Cabinet,  in  which  I 
am  charged  with  the  portfolio  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, will  remain  mindful  of  the  international  engagements 
entered  into  by  the  fallen  regime,  and  will  honor  Russia's 
word.  We  shall  carefully  cultivate  relations  which  unite  us 
with  other  friendly  and  allied  nations,  and  we  are  confident  that 
these  relations  will  become  even  more  intimate,  more  solid, 
under  the  new  regime  established  in  Russia,  which  is  resolved 
to  be  guided  by  the  democratic  principles  of  respect  due  to 
both  small  and  great  nations,  to  the  freedom  of  their  develop- 
ment, and  to  good  understanding  among  nations. 

"But  the  Government  cannot  forget  for  a  single  instant  the 
grave  external  circumstances  under  which  it  assumes  power. 
Russia  did  not  will  the  war  which  has  been  drenching  the 
world  with  blood  for  nearly  three  years.  Rut.  victim  of  pre- 
meditated aggression  prepared  long  ago,  she  will  continue,  as 
in  the  past,  to  struggle  against  the  spirit  of  conquest  of  a 
predatory  race  which  has  aimed  at  establishing  an  intolerable 
hegemony  over  its  neighbors  and  subjecting  Europe  of  the 
twentieth  century  to  the  shame  of  domination  by  Prussian 
militarism.    Faithful  to  the  pact  which  unites  her  indissolubly 


248  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

to  her  glorious  Allies,  Russia  is  resolved,  like  them,  to  assure 
the  world,  at  all  costs,  an  era  of  peace  among  the  nations,  on 
the  basis  of  stable  national  organization  guaranteeing  respect 
for  right  and  justice.  She  will  fight  by  their  side  against  the 
common  enemy  until  the  end,  without  cessation  and  without 
faltering. 

"The  Government  of  which  I  form  a  part  will  devote  all  its 
energy  to  bring  the  war  to  a  victorious  conclusion  and  will 
apply  itself  to  the  task  of  repairing  as  quickly  as  possible  the 
errors  of  the  past,  which  hitherto  have  paralyzed  the  aspira- 
tions and  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  Russian  people.  I  am  firmly 
convinced  that  the  marvelous  enthusiasm,  which  to-day  ani- 
mates the  whole  nation,  will  multiply  its  strength  in  time  and 
hasten  the  hour  of  the  final  triumph  of  a  regenerated  Russia 
and  her  valiant  Allies." 

Two  days  later,  on  March  20,  the  Russian  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment issued  the  following  manifesto  to  the  nation : 

"Citizens :  The  great  work  has  been  accomplished.  By  a 
powerful  stroke  the  Russian  people  have  overthrown  the  old 
regime.  A  new  Russia  is  born.  This  coup  d'etat  is  the  cul- 
mination of  long  years  of  struggle. 

"Under  pressure  of  awakened  national  forces,  the  act  of 
Oct.  17,  1905,  promised  Russia  constitutional  liberties,  which 
were  never  granted.  The  First  Duma,  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
national  will,  was  dissolved.  The  Second  Duma  met  the 
same  fate,  and  the  Government,  powerless  to  crush  the  national 
will,  decided  by  the  act  of  June  3,  1907,  to  deprive  the  people 
of  part  of  the  legislative  rights  promised  them. 

"During  the  ensuing  ten  years  the  Government  succes- 
sively withdrew  from  the  people  all  the  rights  they  had  won. 
The  country  was  again  thrown  into  the  abyss  of  absolute  ruin 
and  administrative  arbitrariness.  All  attempts  to  make  the 
voice  of  reason  heard  were  vain,  and  the  great  world  struggle 
into  which  the  country  was  plunged  found  it  face  to  face  with 
moral  decadence  and  power  not  united  with  the  people — power 
indifferent  to  the  country's  destinies  and  steeped  in  vices  and 
infamy. 

"The  heroic  efforts  of  the  Army,  crushed  under  the  cruel 


The  March  Revolution  249 


weight  of  internal  disorganization,  the  appeals  of  the  national 
representatives,  who  were  united  in  view  of  the  national  dan- 
ger, were  powerless  to  lead  the  Emperor  and  his  Government 
into  the  path  of  union  with  the  people.  Thus  when  Russia, 
through  the  illegal  and  sinister  acts  of  her  rulers,  was  con- 
fronted with  the  greatest  disasters,  the  people  had  to  take  the 
power  into  their  own  hands. 

"With  unanimous  revolutionary  spirit,  the  people,  fully- 
realizing  the  seriousness  of  the  moment  and  the  firm  will  of 
the  Duma,  established  a  Provisional  Government,  which  con- 
siders it  its  sacred  duty  to  carry  out  the  national  will  and 
lead  the  country  on  to  the  bright  path  of  free  civic  organiza- 
tion. The  Government  believes  that  the  lofty  spirit  of  patri- 
otism which  the  people  have  shown  in  the  struggle  against 
the  old  regime  will  also  animate  our  gallant  soldiers  on  the 
battlefields. 

"In  its  turn  the  Government  will  do  its  utmost  to  provide 
the  Army  with  everything  necessary  to  bring  the  war  to  a  vic- 
torious conclusion.  The  Government  will  faithfully  observe 
all  alliances  uniting  us  with  other  powers  and  all  agreements 
made  in  the  past. 

"While  taking  measures  indispensable  for  the  defense  of 
the  country  against  a  foreign  enemy,  the  Government  will 
consider  it  its  first  duty  to  grant  to  the  people  every  facility  to 
express  their  will  concerning  the  political  administration,  and 
will  convoke  as  soon  as.  possible  the  Constituent  Assembly  on 
the  basis  of  universal  suffrage,  at  the  same  time  assuring  the 
gallant  defenders  of  the  country  their  share  in  the  Parlia- 
mentary elections. 

"The  Constituent  Assembly  will  issue  fundamental  laws, 
guaranteeing  the  country  the  inalienable  rights  of  equality  and 
liberty. 

"Conscious  of  the  burden  of  political  oppression  which  has 
been  hindering  the  free  creative  forces  of  the  people  during 
years  of  painful  hardships,  the  Provisional  Government  deems 
it  necessary,  before  the  Constituent  Assembly,  to  announce 
to  the  country  its  principles,  assuring  political  liberty  and 
equality  to  all  citizens,  enabling  them  to  make  free  use  of  their 


p4 


The  March  Revolution  251 


spiritual  forces  in  creative  work  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 
The  Government  will  also  take  care  to  elaborate  the  principles 
assuring  all  citizens  participation  in  communal  elections,  which 
will  be  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage. 

"At  the  moment  of  national  emancipation,  the  whole  coun- 
try recalls  with  pious  gratitude  those  who,  in  the  struggle  for 
their  political  and  religious  ideas,  fell  victims  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  old  power,  and  the  Provisional  Government  will  joy- 
fully bring  back  from  exile  and  prison  all  those  who  thus  suf- 
fered for  the  good  of  their  country. 

"In  realizing  these  problems,  the  Provisional  Government 
believes  it  is  executing  the  national  will  and  that  the  whole 
people  will  support  it  in  its  efforts  to  insure  the  happiness  of 
Russia." 

Among  the  many  acts  which  followed  these  declarations  of 
the  Provisional  Government,  we  must  mention  especially  the 
acts  liberating  the  heretofore  oppressed  nationalities.  On 
March  21,  the  Provisional  Government  issued  a  Manifesto 
completely  restoring  the  Finnish  Constitution,  and  on  April 
13.  A.  F.  Kerensky,  then  Minister  of  Justice,  personally  ad- 
dressed the  Finnish  Diet,  greeting  the  free  Finnish  people  in 
the  name  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

On  March  29th  the  Provisional  Government  appointed  a  spe- 
cial Committee,  with  the  prominent  Polish  leader.  A.  R.  Led- 
nitsky.  at  the  head,  to  prepare  a  memorandum  for  the  final 
solution  of  the  Polish  problem.  A  few  weeks  later,  the  Pro- 
visional Government  expressed  its  views  on  this  problem  in 
the  following  Appeal  to  the  Poles : 

"Poles,  the  old  political  order  in  Russia,  the  source  of  your 
bondage  and  ours,  and  the  cause  of  disunion,  has  been  over- 
thrown forever. 

"Liberated  Russia,  personified  in  its  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, vested  with  the  fullness  of  power,  hastens  to  address 
to  you  its  fraternal  greetings  and  to  call  you  to  the  new  life 
of  liberty. 

"The  old  order  gave  you  hypocritical  promises  which  it 
could  but  would  not  carry  out.  The  Central  Powers  have 
utilized  its  mistakes  to  occupy  and  devastate  your  country, 


252  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

and,  with  the  object  of  fighting  against  Russia  and  her  Allies, 
have  given  you  illusory  political  rights,  which  are  extended, 
not  to  all  the  Polish  people,  but  only  to  the  part  of  Poland 
temporarily  occupied  by  the  enemy.  This  is  the  price  for 
which  the  Central  Powers  want  to  buy  the  blood  of  a  people 
who  have  never  fought  on  the  side  of  despotism.  But  now  no 
Polish  Army  is  going  to  fight  for  the  suppression  of  liberty 
and  the  dismemberment  of  its  country  under  the  command  of 
the  eternal  foe. 

"Brother-Poles,  for  you  also  the  hour  for  the  great  de- 
cision has  struck.  Free  Russia  calls  you  into  the  ranks  of  the 
fighters  for  the  people's  liberty.  The  Russian  people,  who 
have  worn  the  yoke,  acknowledge  that  the  fraternal  Polish 
people  also  have  the  fullest  rights  to  determine  freely  their 
own  fate. 

"Faithful  to  the  agreement  with  the  Allies  and  to  the  com- 
mon cause  against  militant  Germanism,  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment considers  that  the  creation  of  an  independent  Polish 
State,  the  stronghold  of  all  the  territories,  where  the  Polish 
people  constitute  the  majority  of  the  population,  will  be  a 
certain  guaranty  of  iasting  peace  in  the  renovated  Europe  of 
the  future. 

"Attached  to  Russia  by  a  free  military  union,  the  Polish 
State  will  be  a  solid  rampart  against  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  by  the  Central  Powers  on  the  Slav  nations.  The  Polish 
people,  freed  and  united,  will  of  itself  determine  its  system  of 
Government  by  expressing  its  will  through  a  Constituent  As- 
sembly convoked  in  the  ancient  Capital  of  Poland.  Through 
political  unity  the  Polish  people  will  receive  a  solid  guaranty 
of  its  civil  and  national  existence. 

"The  Russian  Constituent  Assembly  will  have  to  sanction 
the  new  fraternal  union  and  give  its  consent  to  the  territorial 
changes  in  the  Russian  State  necessary  for  the  formation  of  a 
free  Poland  from  all  the  three  parts  into  which  it  was  cruelly 
separated. 

"Brother-Poles,  take  the  fraternal  hand  which  free  Russia 
holds  out  to  you.    Faithful  guardians  of  great  traditions,  move 


The  March  Revolution  253 


forward  from  now  on  to  the  opening  of  the  new  and  brilliant 
era  of  your  history,  the  era  of  the  resurrection  of  Poland. 

"Let  the  union  of  our  hearts  and  minds  anticipate  the  future 
union  of  our  States  and  let  the  glorious  appeal  of  ancient  days, 
made  by  the  forerunners  of  your  liberation,  re-echo  with  re- 
newed force. 

"Onward  in  the  struggle,  side  by  side,  hand  in  hand,  for 
our  liberty  and  yours!" 

Simultaneously  with  the  liberation  of  Finland  and  Poland, 
the  Provisional  Government  stretched  out  a  fraternal  hand 
to  the  suffering  Jewish  people  in  Russia,  and  with  one  stroke 
of  the  pen  repealed  all  the  anti-Jewish  laws.  The  text  of  this 
momentous  decree  follows : 

"All  existing  legal  restrictions  upon  the  rights  of  Russian 
citizens,  based  upon  faith,  religious  teaching  or  nationality, 
are  revoked.  In  accordance  with  this,  we  hereby  repeal  all 
laws  existing  for  Russia  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  for  separate 
localities,  embodying  limitations  concerning: 

1.  Selection  of  place  of  residence  and  change  of  residence. 

2.  Acquiring  rights  of  ownership  and  other  material  rights 
in  all  kinds  of  movable  property  and  real-estate,  and  likewise 
in  the  possession  of,  the  use  and  the  managing  of  all  property, 
or  receiving  such  for  security. 

3.  Engaging  in  all  kinds  of  trades,  commerce  and  industry, 
not  excepting  mining;  also  equal  participation  in  the  bidding 
for  Government  contracts,  deliveries  and  in  public  auctions. 

4.  Participation  in  joint  stock  and  other  commercial  or  in- 
dustrial companies  and  partnerships,  and  also  employment  in 
these  companies  and  partnerships  in  all  kinds  of  positions, 
either  by  elections  or  by  employment. 

5.  Employment  of  servants,  salesmen,  foremen,  laborers,  and 
trade  apprentices. 

6.  Entering  the  Government  service,  civil  as  well  as  military. 
.  and  the  grade  or  condition  of  such  service ;  participation  in  the 

elections  for  the  institutions  of  local  self-government,  and  all 
kinds  of  public  institutions;  serving  in  all  kinds  of  positions  of 
Government  and  public  establishments,  as  well  as  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  duties  connected  with  such  positions. 


254  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

7.  Admission  to  all  kinds  of  educational  institutions,  whether 
private,  Government  or  public,  and  the  pursuing  of  the  courses 
of  instruction  of  these  institutions,  and  receiving  scholarships. 
Also  the  pursuance  of  teaching  and  the  other  educational  pro- 
fessions. 

8.  Performing  the  duties  of  guardians,  trustees,  or  jurors. 

9.  The  use  of  languages  and  dialects,  other  than  Russian, 
in  the  proceedings  of  private  societies,  or  in  teaching  in  all 
kinds  of  private  educational  institutions,  and  in  commercial 
bookkeeping." 


The  United  States  was  the  first  country  to  welcome  Russia 
into  the  family  of  free  nations.  On  March  22,  the  American 
Ambassador,  in  Petrograd,  David  R.  Francis,  accompanied  by 
his  entire  Staff,  went  to  the  Mariinsky  Palace  to  convey  the 
formal  recognition  by  the  United  States  of  the  new  Russian 
Government.  Addressing  the  Council  of  Ministers.  Ambassa- 
dor Francis  said : 

"I  have  the  honor,  as  the  Ambassador  and  Representative 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  accredited  to  Russia, 
to  state,  in  accordance  with  instructions,  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  has  recognized  the  new  Government  of 
Russia,  and  I,  as  Ambassador  of  the  United  States,  will  be 
pleased  to  continue  intercourse  with  Russia  through  the 
medium  of  the  new  Government. 

"May  the  cordial  relations  existing  between  the  two  coun- 
tries continue  to  obtain.  May  they  prove  mutually  satisfactory 
and  beneficial." 

P.  N.  Miliukov  replied  for  the  Provisional  Government, 
saying : 

"Permit  me,  in  the  name  of 'the  Provisional  Government,  to 
answer  the  act  of  recognition  by  the  United  States.  You 
have  been  able  to  follow  for  yourself  the  events  which  have 
established  the  new  order  of  affairs  for  free  Russia.  I  have 
been  more  than  once  in  your  country  and  may  bear  witness 
that  the  ideals  which  are  represented  by  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment are  the  same  as  underlie  the  existence  of  your  own 
country.     I  hope  that  this  great  change  which  has  come  to 


The  March  Revolution  255 


Russia  will  do  much  to  bring  us  closer  together  than  we  have 
ever  been  before. 

"I  must  tell  your  Excellency  that  during  the  last  few  days 
I  have  received  many  congratulations  from  prominent  men  in 
your  country,  assuring  me  that  the  public  opinion  of  the 
United  States  is  in  sympathy  with  us.  Permit  me  to  thank 
you.  We  are  proud  to  be  recognized  first  by  a  country  whose 
ideals  we  cherish." 

On  the  following  day  Great  Britain,  France  and  Italy, 
through  their  Ambassadors  in  Petrograd,  also  extended  formal 
recognition  to  the  new  Russian  Government. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government 

THE  previous  chapter  presents  the  political  program  of 
the  first  Provisional   Cabinet.     Its  economic  program 
was  fully  expressed  in  the  address  of  the  Minister  of 
Trade  and  Industry,  A.  I.   Konovalov,   delivered  before  the 
Moscow  Stock  Exchange  on  April  14,  1917. 

This  address  is  valuable  not  only  as  an  historical  document 
presenting  the  economic  program  of  the  Russian  Provisional 
Government, — it  is  of  more  than  historical  value.  While  the 
future  stable,  democratic  Government,  which  finally  will  be 
established  in  Russia,  will  probably  differ  somewhat,  in  its 
composition,  from  the  first  Provisional  Cabinet,  and  while 
some  of  the  details  of  Konovalov's  program  may  be  changed, 
his  address  delivered  before  the  Moscow  Stock  Exchange  re- 
mains, in  our  opinion,  the  inevitable  program  for  the  future 
economic  development  of  free  Russia. 

The  Bolsheviki,  with  their  naive  political  and  economic 
experiments,  will  disappear  as  soon  as  the  instinct  for  self- 
preservation  reasserts  itself  in  Russia,  as  soon  as  Russia  be- 
gins to  recover  from  her  grave  wounds.  Young,  full  of  latent 
power,  she  is  passing  through  a  period  of  utmost  disorganiza- 
tion known  to  every  country  that  has  passed  from  tyranny  to 
free  democratic  development.  To-day  is  the  gravest  mo- 
ment in  Russia's  national  history.  Anything  that  happens  to- 
morrow cannot  but  be  an  improvement. 

With  very  few  exceptions,  Russia  is  further  away  from 
Socialism  than  probably  any  other  country  in  the  world.  The 
Bolshevist  demagogues  may  promise  the  unfortunate  masses, 
worn  out  by  centuries  of  oppression  and  bled  by  the  war, 
everything  they  find  on  the  tips  of  their  tongues.  As  was  to 
be  expected,  the  "Socialism"  which  the  Bolsheviki  realized  in 
Russia  has  resulted  in  the  utmost  disorganization  of  industry, 
of  transportation,  of  finance,  and  has  created  a  situation  in 
which  entire  Provinces  are  suffering  from  real,  physical 
hunger. 

If  we  consult  about  the  possibility  for  immediate  Socialism 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government       257 


in  Russia,  not  the  Bolshevist  demagogues,  but  the  real  Rus- 
sian Socialist  leaders,  men  who  have  served  the  interests  of 
the  laboring  masses  for  generations,  men  to  whom  the  tragedy 
of  the  unfortunate  masses  is  as  their  own,  men  who,  preaching 
Socialism  as  a  scientific  theory  of  economic  development,  feel 
the  utmost  responsibility  for  every  statement  they  make  to  the 
masses, — we  would  receive  a  very  definite  answer.  They  would 
say :    "Although  we  believe  that  Russia,  just  as  every  other 
State  on  the  globe,  will   eventually   come   to   Socialism,  the 
next  inevitable  stage  in  Russia's  national  life  will  be  a  period 
of  capitalistic  development."     They  would  also  say :    "Social- 
ism became  a  power  only  since  Karl  Marx  explained  the  in- 
evitability of  capitalistic  development  for  every  State,  and  the 
historical   mission    of   capitalism,   which    is   the    development, 
through  private  competition,  of  the  natural  resources  of  every 
country,   the   development   and  concentration   of   production. 
Only  when  a  State  is  highly  developed  industrially  and  the 
production  is  so  concentrated  that  a  small  group  of  private 
interests  practically  controls  the  economic  life  of  the  nation, 
only  then  can  a  democratic  government  step  in  and  replace 
this   small   group   of  interests   by   its   own   control.      This   is 
the  theory  of  scientific  Socialism.    That  means  that  a  country 
like  Russia,  with  undeveloped  resources,  with  the  masses  un- 
educated, with  a  proletariat  amounting  to  not  more  than  four 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  population,  is  far,  far  away  from  Social- 
ism and  must  inevitably  pass  through  the  stage  of  capitalistic 
development,  which  alone  is  able  to  organize  the  natural  re- 
sources of  the  nation,  to  build  up  the  industries  and  bring  them 
to  the  proper  stage  of  efficiency.    The  hour  for  a  social  revolu- 
tion has  not  yet  struck,  and  Russia  is  further  from  this  hour 
than  probably  any  other  country  in  the  world."* 

To  return  to  our  theme,  this  leaves  Konovalov's  address 
before  the  Moscow  Stock  Exchange,  even  from  the  Socialist 
point  of  view,  still  a  living  program  for  Russia's  future 
economic   development.     The   Bolsheviki  will   disappear,   and 

*This  would  be  the  answer  given  us  if  we  were  to  interview,  for  in- 
stance, the  great  Russian  Socialist.  George  Plekhanov,  an  economist, 
sociologist  and  philosopher  recognized  the  world  over.  The  above-given 
lines  are  only  a  paraphrase  of  Plekhanov's  argumentation  since  the  Revo- 
lution of  1905  up  to  the  present. 


258  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the  collapse  of  their  power  may  be  as  sudden  as  its  rise 
during-  and  after  the  November  revolt.  Transportation  will 
be  reestablished,  the  banks  will  be  reopened,  the  financial 
system  will  recuperate,  the  management  of  industries  will 
be  placed  in  the  skillful  hands  of  the  industrial  class,  as  soon 
as  the  nation,  coming  out  of  its  crisis,  will  bring  into  existence 
a  stable,  democratic  government  composed  of  the  best  repre- 
sentatives of  Russia's  mind  and  statesmanship.  We  cannot 
prophesy  whether  A.  I.  Konovalov,  now  imprisoned  by  the 
Bolsheviki  in  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul,  will  appear 
again  as  the  Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry, — we  would  like 
that  he  should, — but  one  thing  is  almost  certain :  his  successor 
will  have  to  incorporate  in  his  program  many  points  of  Kono- 
valov's  address  before  the  Moscow  Stock  Exchange  on  April 
4.  1917. 

Konovalov's  Address 

"Free  citizens  of  free  Russia,  permit  me  to  extend  my  greetings  to 
you. 

The  fondest  aspirations  of  our  people  have  been  realized:  the  old 
hateful  order  has  given  way  under  the  mighty  pressure  of  the  coun- 
try's wrath,  and  on  its  ruins  new  life  has  rapidly  taken  root,  and  is 
already  beginning  to  take  form.  All  of  us,  the  entire  Russian  people, 
are  confronted  with  the  great  and  sacred  task  of  preserving  and 
guarding  the  tender  flower  of  liberty  from  all  storms  and  dangers 
besetting  it,  from  our  midst  as  well  as  from  without. 

We  need  not  be  disturbed  if  the  first  steps  along  the  road  of 
adapting  ourselves  to  the  new  conditions  of  life  appear  difficult 
and  are  accompanied  by  friction,  inevitable  with  New  Russia 
separated  from  Old  Russia  only  by  a  month  and  a  half.  All  the 
oppression,  all  the  abuses  that  were  the  very  foundation  of  the  old 
regime  are  still  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  masses;  the  minds  of  the 
people  are  still  in  a  state  of  ferment;  mental  equilibrium  and  a  sober 
viewpoint  of  the  future  of  our  country,  so  necessary  for  placing  our 
social  and  political  life  on  a  sound  basis,  are  still  lacking. 

In  order  that  we  may  pass  out  of  this  transitory  stage  as  soon  as 
possible,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  concentrate  all  our  thought,  all 
our  energy,  for  the  purpose  of  dealing  the  final  and  decisive  blow 
to  the  foreign  foe.  At  the  same  time  it  is  necessary  to  maintain 
civil  peace  within  the  country,  to  conciliate  the  different  classes, 
and  to  subordinate  class  interests  to  the  general  welfare  of  the 
State.  These  are  the  two  fundamental  problems  which  new  Russia 
is  now  facing,  and  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  solving  them  that   the 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        259 


Provisional  Government  calls 
upon  all  to  cooperate  with 
the   Administration. 

Gentlemen,  new  conditions 
necessitate  the  adoption  of 
new  viewpoints.  The  tre- 
mendous upheaval  that  has 
shaken  the  economic  life  of 
the  world  to  its  foundations 
has  caused  an  unparalleled 
change  in  the  economic  rela- 
tions in  all  the  belligerent 
countries.  Of  this  England 
offers  the  most  striking  ex- 
ample, England  the  country 
of  age-old  traditions,  where 
custom  and  the  broadest  in- 
dividualism has  always  pre- 
vailed, the  country  which  has 
always  protected  the  indi- 
vidual from  all  claims  of  the 
State  and  whose  slogan  has 
been  'the  State  for  the  citi- 
zens, and  not  the  citizens  for 
the  State.'  England  has,  under 
the  influence  of  the  war,  ab- 
ruptly and  radically  changed 


A.  I.  KONOVALOV 

Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry  in  the 

Provisional  Government. 


her  views,  views  which,  it  was  generally  assumed,  represented  the 
most  typical  traits  of  the  English.  Prior  to  the  war  every  English- 
man would  have  protested  most  vigorously  against  any  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  to  interfere  with  the  private  interests  of 
individuals;  now  we  see  those  classes  which  considered  any  attempt 
at  Government  control  an  abominable  violation  of  their  rights,  come 
out  for  Government  control.  Under  the  influence  of  the  world  war. 
under  the  pressure  of  economic  necessity,  the  psychology  of  entire 
nations  change. 

The  people  are  compelled  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new.  un- 
precedented conditions  of  life.  If  such  an  effect  was  produced  on 
England  by  the  war  alone,  what  can  be  expected  of  Russia  living 
through  the  throes  of  Revolution  together  with  war?  Gentlemen, 
consider  carefully  what  is  now  taking  place  in  our  country.  It  will 
not  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  we  are  not  only  waging  a  gigantic 
struggle  with  the  mighty  and  obstinate  foreign  foe,  for  our  place  in 
the  sun,  but  that  we  are  going  through  a  radical  reconstruction  of  the 
entire  sytem  under  which  we  have  been  living. 

At  the   front,  as  well  as    in   the  country,   the   fatal  question   con- 


260  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

fronting  us  is  'to  be  or  not  to  be.'  And  at  this  decisive  hour  of 
our  national  life  when  the  destiny  of  Russia,  and  with  it  our  fate 
as  a  nation,  is  being  decided,  let  us  recognize  the  tremendous 
responsibility  which  rests  upon  us.  Let  us  not  stop  at  any  sacrifices, 
let  us  give  our  very  life,  if  need  be,  for  our  great  country,  for  the 
sake  of  her  honor,  her  well-being,  her  very  existence,  and  the  long- 
sought  liberty.  The  newly  created  order  necessitates  a  new  psy- 
chology. We  must  frankly  acknowledge  that  at  the  present  moment, 
the  fundamental  principles,  the  basic  conditions  of  our  economic 
life  are  undergoing  a  most  radical  change.  From  out  of  the  deep 
sufferings  of  the  masses  come  forth  the  persistent  demands  that  the 
Government,  together  with  the  wealthy  classes,  take  immediate  steps 
towards  satisfying  the  spiritual  and  the  material  needs  of  the  people, 
which  was  impossible  under  the  old  regime.  In  this  connection, 
we  are  informed,  false  apprehensions  and  groundless  doubts  are 
springing  up.  Let  us  trust  that  in  the  constructive  process  which  is 
now  being  carried  on  by  the  people,  in  the  process  of  reorganizing 
our  State  on  the  new  principles  proclaimed  by  the  Revolution,  an 
adjustment  will  be  made  possible  whereby  all  the  just  demands  will 
be  satisfied,  and  which  will  safeguard  the  civil  peace,  indispensable 
for  completing  the  titanic  task  before  Russia.  Let  us  not  for  a 
minute  doubt  but  that  our  statesmen  will  be  able  to  find  a  way  of 
bringing  about  harmony  among  all  these  centrifugal  forces.  The 
inherent  tact  and  common  sense  of  our  great  people,  which  have 
many  times  been  demonstrated  in  the  course  of  our  national  his- 
tory, of  which  the  present  Revolution  is  the  most  brilliant  illustra- 
tion, are  a  sufficient  assurance  that  the  people  will  prove  equal  to 
the  great  task  ahead  of  them. 

Confidence  and  harmony  in  the  relations  of  the  citizens,  among 
themselves  and  towards  the  Provisional  Government,  is  the  basis 
upon  which  the  new  structure  of  free  Russia  will  be  erected.  But 
the  old  order  has  left  us  a  heritage  of  discord;  under  its  pernicious 
influence  all  the  sound  elements  of  the  country  have  split  up  into 
the  minutest  factions,  differing  in  their  views  and  tactics  and  creat- 
ing an  atmosphere  of  distrust  and  suspicion.  That  is  wherein  the 
great  danger  lies,  and  it  is  this  danger  that  we  must  by  all  means 
fight,  lest  the  hideous  ghost  of  the  past  return  and  stifle  the  newly 
born  liberty,  by  kindling  the  darkest  passions  and  fanning  the  flames 
of  civil  strife.  There  is  only  one  way  to  overcome  this  danger, 
namely,  for  the  representatives  of  the  various  groups  and  classes  to 
approach  one  another  without  distrust,  to  openly  and  frankly  set 
forth  their  views,  and  alter  getting  mutually  acquainted,  combine 
their  efforts  for  the  common  cause  of  all  Russia. 

If  this  be  so,  then  the  class  of  tradesmen  and  manufacturers  cannot 
and  must  not  remain  isolated.  The  old  regime  has  seemingly  done 
everything  to  deliberately  destroy  and  demoralize  the  trade-industrial 


/ 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        261 


apparatus  it  took  years  to  build  up,  as  a  result  of  which  the  usual 
course  of  the  country's  economic  life  was  stopped,  and  at  the  same 
time,  through  the  peculiarly  enforced  system  of  regulations,  a  wide 
field  for  all  sorts  of  abuses  and  speculations  was  opened.  We  must 
frankly  acknowledge  that  from  these  abuses  and  speculations  a 
system  of  oppression  grew  up  which  has  called  forth  fully  merited 
reproach,  distrust  and  hostile  feelings  towards  the  representatives 
of  the  trade-industrial  class.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  trade-industrial 
class,  in  the  interests  of  the  State  and  for  the  welfare  of  the  popula- 
tion, to  openly  fight  the  excess  profits  emanating  from  the  system 
of  speculation  and  abuses.  Gentlemen,  we  must  root  out  this  poison- 
ous weed  of  the  old  regime,  no  matter  at  what  cost. 

At  the  same  time  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  under  present 
circumstances,  lacking  most  of  the  necessaries  of  existence,  with  the 
factories  and  mills  forced  to  cut  down  their  production  due  to  lack  of 
raw  material  and  fuel,  with  the  demoralization  of  the  transportation 
system,  and  being  compelled,  despite  all  these  obstacles,  to  meet  the 
numerous  requirements  at  the  front. — there  is  no  other  way  out  but 
Government  control  of  private  industrial  and  mercantile  enter- 
prises, and  the  cooperation  of  the  democratic  masses  of  the 
population  in  the  matter  of  regulating  the  trade-industrial  life  of 
the  country.  For  example,  there  are  already  in  existence  commit- 
tees, in  the  cotton,  flax,  jute,  wool  and  leather  industries,  the  purpose 
of  these  committees  being  to  supply  the  factories  and  mills  with  all 
the  necessary  raw  material,  the  placing  of  war  orders  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  the  distribution  of  manufactured  articles  at  the  front 
and  throughout  the  country.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  in  this  direc- 
tion it  is  necessary  for  us  to  go  further.  It  is  not  only  necessary  to 
reform  the  existing  committees  by  making  them  more  social  in  their 
nature  and  widening  the  scope  of  their  activities,  but  also,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  requirements  of  life  and  the  dictates  of  experience, 
to  create  new  committees  in  a  number  of  the  most  important  lines 
of  business.  In  addition  to  fair  distribution,  it  should  be  the  task 
of  all  the  committees,  which  are  to  become  parts  of  the  Ministry, 
to  also  regulate  the  prices.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  the  representa- 
tives of  the  various  classes  of  society,  entering  into  similar  organiza- 
tions, and  thus  assuming  their  share  of  responsibility  for  this  or 
some  other  solution  of  questions  arising  out  of  our  economic  life, 
that  they  will  aid  in  creating  a  more  intelligent  and  fair  attitude 
towards  the  trade-industrial  life  and  those  conditions  under  which 
it  is   carried  on. 

Closely  connected  with  this  question  there  is  another  one  which  I 
personally  consider  of  tremendous  importance.  I  know  that  it  has 
already  arisen  and  has  already  met  with  a  sympathetic  attitude  on 
your  part.  I  have  in  mind  the  question  of  limiting  the  profits  of  all 
mercantile  and  industrial   establishments.     Undoubtedly,  a   properly 


262  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


worked-out  solution  of  this  question  would  have  the  tendency  to 
check  the  unwarranted  growth  of  prices  that  would  appease  the 
masses.  The  moral  effect  of  a  decree  limiting  profits  is  of  tremendous 
importance,  not  only  in  that  it  would  soften  the  feeling  of  ill-will 
towards  the  trade-industrial  class,  but  also  because  it  would  afford 
the  Government  a  new  convincing  proof  that  the  commercial  and 
industrial  class  is  ready  to  make  all  possible  sacrifices  for  the 
common  good,  a  proof  which  would  paralyze  the  voicing  of  any  new 
demands  on  the  part  of  the  masses. 

Now,  gentlemen,  these  are  the  main  ideas,  the  fundamental  points 
of  view  which  the  trade-industrial  class  should  consider  as  a  starting 
point  in  its  efforts  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  population,  and  to 
safeguard  that  important  position  which  they  ought  to  occupy  in 
the  life  of  the  country.  But  you  no  doubt  understand  that  in  order 
to  fulfill  its  historic  mission,  your  class,  as  any  other,  must  be  well 
organized.  Divided,  split  up  into  factions,  not  united  in  one  strong 
harmonious  organization,  the  commercial  and  industrial  class  will 
be  powerless  to  do  its  full  duty  towards  the  Government. 

At  this  time  of  tremendous  upheaval  through  which  we  are  pass- 
ing, at  this  time  when  all  the  foundations  of  our  economic  life  are 
shaking,  the  Government  will  be  able  to  hold  its  own  against  the 
enemy's  blows  and  reconstruct  our  national  life  only  if  it  will  be 
able  to  secure  the  support  of  all  our  citizens,  regardless  of  classes 
or  groups. 

In  order  to  accelerate  the  process  of  putting  our  national  life  into 
its  normal  course,  in  order  to  hasten  the  restoration  of  our  eco- 
nomic forces,  in  order  to  effect  a  close  union  of  all  the  component 
parts  of  our  population,  so  essential  for  victory,  in  order  to  start 
the  important  work  of  shaping  the  great  future  of  Russia,  I  call  upon 
the  trade-industrial  class  to  organize  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry,  in  its  turn,  will  give  most 
careful  consideration  to  all  the  suggestions  of  the  trade-industrial 
spheres  regarding  their  organization  into  one  self-governing  body, 
bound  by  unity  of  aim,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  afford  them  a 
properly  organized  expression  of  their  will.  I  have  in  mind  the 
organizing  of  Chambers  of  Trade  and  Industry. 

This  organization  of  the  commercial  class,  which  is  so  necessary 
for  the  present,  is  still  more  important  for  the  future.  The  economic 
problems  which  are  waiting  to  be  solved  are  so  tremendously  com- 
plicated, so  extremely  difficult,  that  a  proper  solution  cannot  be  at- 
tained without  the  cooperation  of  the  organized  social  forces  with 
the  Government. 

The  task  before  us  consists  in  working  out  a  plan  for  the  eco- 
nomic structure  of  new  Russia,  in  laying  down  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  our  national  program,  concerning  our  economic  life.  We 
must  elaborate  a  plan  for  organizing  our  economic  life,  ascertaining 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        263 


the  main  needs  of  our  industrial  and  commercial  life  and  determining 
the  manner  in  which  these  needs  shall  be  satisfied. 

As  regards  the  more  immediate  problems  of  our  economic  life, 
confronting  us  at  home  as  well  as  in  our  relations  with  foreign 
countries,  they  naturally  will  be  determined  by  the  financial  and 
economic  heritage  which  the  war  will  leave  us.  Disorganization  of 
the  country's  industrial  life,  an  enormous  quantity  of  paper  money 
and  an  enormous  increase  in  the  country's  debts- — these  are  the  fun- 
damental factors  which  will  determine  the  direction  of  our  economic 
policy,  regardless  of  our  desires  or  preferences. 

Our  budget  after  the  war  will  amount  to  not  less  than  8-9  billion 
rubles.  It  is  impossible  to  cover  such  a  budget  by  means  of  increased 
taxation.  The  extent  of  taxation  is  limited  by  the  country's  productivity 
and  its  increase  is  possible  only  in  proportion  to  the  increased 
value  of  the  total  production  of  the  country's  industries.  Therefore, 
for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  domestic  industry,  special  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  putting  into  practice  of  a  carefully  worked 
out  system  of  customs  tariff,  which,  as  the  example  of  all  industrial 
countries  so  well  shows,  has  always  served  as  a  mighty  stimulant 
for  the  development  of  all  the  productive  forces  which  otherwise 
lie  dormant  in  the  country,  and  has  always  aided  towards  a  greater 
development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  country.  The  plan  of  a 
new  protective  tariff  was  prepared  by  the  old  regime.  But  the  pro- 
posed import  duties  were  based  on  a  study  of  the  conditions  which 
prevailed  in  our  industries  as  well  as  in  foreign  industries,  before 
the  war.  Conditions  in  industrial  life  have  completely  changed 
during  the  war.  The  new  era  upon  which  Russia  is  now  entering 
has  accentuated  the  changes  which  the  present  war  caused  in  our 
economic  life.  Hence  it  is  necessary  to  revise  the  proposed  tariff 
without  delay,  for  the  purpose  of  adapting  it  to  the  altered  condi- 
tions of  our  industrial  life  and  to  modify  it  in  conformity  with  the 
depreciation  of  our  money.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Ministry 
of  Trade  and  Industry  will  consider  it  its  duty  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  the  representatives  of  all  groups  whose  interests  are  in- 
volved in  this  plan,  namely,  the  trade-industrial  class  and  the  work- 
ing people,  as  well  as  the  representatives  of  the  scientific  world  and 
of  the  public  at  large. 

In  the  domain  of  our  foreign  policy,  with  regard  to  our  economic 
life,  the  heritage  of  the  war  will,  during  the  first  years,  consist  of  a 
markedly  negative  trade  balance.  Our  foreign  debts,  which  have 
greatly  increased,  can  only  to  a  small  extent  be  counterbalanced  by 
the  export  of  grain,  which  has  now  considerably  decreased,  if  not 
ceased  altogether. 

The  situation  is  becoming  all  the  more  difficult  because  of  the 
ever  increasing  famine  due  to  the  shortage  of  means  of  production, 
as  well  as  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life;  this  famine  will  be  felt  very 


264  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


acutely  not  only  on  account  of  the  lack  of  these  goods,  but  also  be- 
cause of  the  overabundance  of  paper  money.  Uncontrolled  commerce, 
with  a  tendency  for  acquisition  of  property  abroad,  which  is  prone 
to  develop  under  such  circumstances,  if  left  to  private  enterprise, 
must  lead  to  the  further  depreciation  of  the  ruble.  As  a  result, 
our  newly  restored  industries,  our  transportation  and  agriculture, 
which  require  a  large  import  of  metals,  lathes,  machinery,  rails  and 
assembled  parts,  and  which  at  the  same  time  demand  the  safeguards 
of  a  cheap  rate  of  exchange,  may  be  placed  in  a  most  embarrassing 
position.  Government  control  over  these  matters  demands  that  a 
specified  number  of  basic  articles  of  import  be  excluded  from  the 
list  of  articles  which  private  firms  will  be  allowed  to  import,  such 
restrictions  being  determined  by  a  study  of  the  requirements  of  the 
public.  Government  control  would  also  imply  the  centralization  of 
all  purchasing.  Only  under  such  conditions  will  it  be  possible  for 
us  to  meet  our  obligations,  which  do  not  fall  due  until  such  time 
when  our  home  industries  will  come  into  their  own  and  when  a 
normal  balance  in  our  favor  will  enable  us  to  satisfy  our  need  for 
foreign  gold. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  present  situation  naturally  demands  every 
measure  towards  restoring  the  trade  which  can  be  gained,  stimulating 
the  growth  of  export  and  creating  conditions  conducive  to  the  in- 
flux of  foreign  capital. 

The  influx  of  foreign  capital  performs  a  two-fold  function:  besides 
restoring  the  balance,  it  is  ahsolutely  necessary  for  the  development 
of  the  productive  forces  of  the  country.  The  Ministry  of  Trade 
and  Industry  expects  the  influx  of  capital  not  only  from  England 
and  France,  our  old  friends,  but  also  from  the  United  States,  where 
an  enormous  quantity  of  gold  has  been  amassed  during  the  war  and 
where  a  mighty  movement  for  an  American-Russian  rapprochement 
has  arisen  and  become  especially  marked  since  the  United  States' 
entrance  into  the  war.  The  Ministry,  in  its  turn,  will  lend  every 
support  to  the  closest  possible  rapprochement  between  the  two  great- 
est democracies  in  the  world. 

The  widening  of  our  relations  necessitates  the  construction  of  a  Rus- 
sian merchant  marine.  Even  prior  to  the  war,  about  two-thirds  of  our 
foreign  trade  was  overseas  trade.  After  the  war,  the  increased  trade 
with  the  Allies  will  make  the  overseas  commerce  the  dominant  part 
of  our  entire  trade.  The  negligible  part,  only  10  per  cent.,  which  the 
Russian  merchant  marine  has  controlled,  can  no  longer  be  tolerated. 
Besides  the  overcharges  in  freight  which  is  paid  for  in  foreign 
money,  such  a  state  of  affairs  deprives  Russia  of  her  independence 
in  her  foreign  trade  policy.  That  is  why  the  building  up  of  a  power- 
ful merchant  marine  is  one  of  our  immediate  problems.  The  Min- 
istry has  already  organized  a  special  committee  on  marine  trans- 
portation.   This  has  been  divided  up  into  sub-committees,  which  are 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        265 


at  present  busily  engaged  preparing  bills  which,  if  taken  together, 
are  to  form  the  basis  for  the  immediate  development  of  our  mer- 
chant fleet.  The  first  step  to  be  taken  is  the  creation  of  a  series  of 
general  juridical  measures  which  would  do  away  with  the  handicaps 
and  defects  of  the  old  legislation,  such  as  the  regulations  dealing 
with  the  registration  of  ships,  the  limited  responsibility  of  the  ship- 
owners, etc.  Then  will  follow  a  series  of  measures  tending  to  encour- 
age the  ship-building  industry  in  Russia  and  the  increase  of  the 
merchant  fleet,  measures  which  are  already  hurriedly  being  prepared, 
such  as  the  bills  regulating  the  working  conditions  of  the  merchant 
marine  crews. 

Serious  work  is  also  required  in  connection  with  the  ports.  Some 
of  it  has  already  been  undertaken  by  the  Ministry.  The  new  con- 
ditions have  necessitated  a  number  of  tentative  measures,  such  as 
(1)  The  organization  of  the  administration  of  the  ports.  (2)  Regu- 
lation of  working  conditions  of  port  laborers.  The  port  admin- 
istration has  been  enlarged  through  the  admission  into  its  ranks 
of  representatives  of  the  public,  the  manufacturers  and  the  workers. 
Courts  of  Arbitration  have  been  established  and  the  measures 
are  accompanied  by  a  revision  of  the  very  foundations  of  the  ports' 
administration,  on  the  basis  of  the  widest  autonomy  and  self-gov- 
ernment. At  the  same  time  the  question  of  better  equipment  of  the 
ports  through  the  widest  possible  cooperation  of  private  initiative 
is  taken  up.  Finally,  in  our  endeavors  to  facilitate  foreign  trade 
and  secure  our  independence  from  the  world's  distributing  centres, — 
such  as  Hamburg,  Bremen  and  others, — the  question  of  'free  ports' 
has  been  raised,  a  project  which  it  is  understood  is  to  be  carried  out 
with  the  greatest  care,  in  the  interests  of  our  home  industries.  Many 
of  the  measures  which  have  been  suggested  are  already  being  drawn 
up  and  we  trust  that  in  the  very  near  future  they  will  become  laws. 

The  imperative  demand  for  the  development  of  our  industries  has 
compelled  our  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  to  start  searching  for 
new  sources  of  wealth  in  the  country,  for  the  purpose  of  developing 
them  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  In  this  connection,  the  Min- 
istry has  in  the  first  place  turned  to  the  undeveloped  riches  of  the 
North.  Our  Ministry  has  appointed  a  special  committee  for  the  purpose 
of  studying  the  natural  resources  of  our  Northern  Provinces,  in  order 
to  develop  their  economic  life  in  general,  and  above  all  to  increase 
our  lumber  export. 

Then,  it  is  needless  to  prove  to  you  what  part  electric  power  plays  in 
the  development  of  production.  Until  the  present  time,  the  utiliza- 
tion of  electricity  has  not  received  due  consideration,  and  this  de- 
spite the  fact  that  Russia  is  so  very  rich  in  peat,  in  mighty  sources 
of  water  power,  and  despite  the  high  price  of  fuel, — all  these  grounds 
which  should  have  prompted  us  to  obtain  heat  and  power  by  utilizing 
the  natural  resources  of  the  country.     This  has,  however,  been  pre- 


266  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


vented  by  the  obsolete  legislation  and  narrow-minded  policies  of  the 
old  Government.  The  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  regards  it  as 
one  of  its  tasks  to  energetically  push  this  matter  forward  by  focus- 
ing its  attention  on  legislation  touching  upon  the  development 
and  the  application  of  electricity  to  our  industries.  This  week  a 
Conference  devoted  to  electric  problems  will  begin  its  work.  This  Con- 
ference will  be  composed  of  representatives  of  various  public  bodies, 
of  manufacturers  and  scientists.  It  will  work  out  a  constitution  for 
the  Department  of  Electricity,  which  is  being  created,  and  it  will 
discuss  a  series  of  bills  regulating  the  production  of  electricity  from 
coal,  peat  and  waterfalls,  the  transmission  of  this  energy  and  its 
consumption.  The  Conference  will  also  outline  the  general  principles 
of  management  of  all  matters  pertaining  to  electricity. 

Problems  of  tremendous  importance  are  also  confronting  us  in  the 
Department  of  Education.  Technical  and  professional  training  of 
the  elementary  and  of  the  higher  type,  coupled  with  a  fair  general 
education  of  a  live,  practical  nature,  will  form  the  foundation  of  the 
future  productive  activities  of  our  people.  In  the  very  near  future, 
conferences  and  congresses  of  people  active  in  the  educational  world 
will  be  called,  and  the  general  project  of  the  legislation  regarding 
commercial,  technical  and  professional  training  will  be  submitted  to 
them  for  consideration.  The  number  of  professional  schools  of  all 
types  is  already  becoming  considerably  large.  Our  new  freedom, 
stimulating  the  people,  in  general,  will  call  into  being  a  new 
stream  of  initiative  in  the  domain  of  pedagogy.  As  regards  the 
universities  and  colleges,  the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  is, 
above  all,  worried  by  the  abnormal  situation  which  finds  expression 
in  the  prolonged  years  of  attendance  and  the  small  number  of 
graduates.  The  fundamental  problems  confronting  the  Ministry 
in  this  connection  are  as  follows:  to  increase  the  number  of 
engineers  and  persons  with  business  training,  by  shortening  the  time 
required  for  their  training,  and  so  to  offer  to  the  country  a  sufficient 
contingent  of  young,  energetic,  not  overworked  forces.  Besides 
regulating  the  curriculum  and  the  methods  of  instruction,  these  prob- 
lems, due  to  the  lack  of  means  from  which  some  of  our  students 
suffer,  are  bound  up  with  the  arranging  for  a  special  'students' 
credit.'  Of  the  measures  already  put  into  practice  by  the  Ministry, 
I  wish  to  point  out  the  accomplished  decentralization  in  matters  of 
high  school  administration,  the  eradication  of  a  series  of  chronic 
abnormalities  with  which  the  life  of  the  universities  was  affected, 
the  regulation-  of  the  material  situation  of  the  teaching  personnel, 
and  also  the  putting  into  practice  in  school  life  of  the  principles  of 
equality  and  liberty,  the  principles  which  form  the  basis  of  the 
program  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

For  the  new  regime  more  perfect  trade-industrial  legislation  is 
required,   not  only  based  on  the  modern  principles  now  effective  in 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        267 


the  most  advanced  countries,  but  also  of  such  a  nature  as  would 
bring  the  entire  economic  life  of  the  country  to  more  favorable 
conditions  conducive  to  proper  development.  Here,  above  all,  the 
Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  considers  it  absolutely  necessary, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  free  trade-industrial  activity  from  the  economic 
and  political  fetters  of  the  old  regime,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
inject  new  wholesome  elements  into  the  productive  life  of  the  coun- 
try. And  you,  gentlemen,  know  that  the  reform  legislation  dealing 
with  corporations  and  joint  stock  companies  is  already  an  accom- 
plished fact.  One  of  the  first  recommendations  which  I,  as  head  of 
the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry,  have  submitted  to  the  Pro- 
visional Government  was  that  regarding  the  abolition  of  all  those 
restrictions  upon  joint-stock  companies,  by  means  of  which  the  old 
regime  was  stifling  all  individual  initiative,  in  its  attempt  to  utilize 
the  laws  which  should  have  been  used  for  the  development  of  the 
country's  productive  forces,  as  a  tool  for  the  fanning  of  religious 
and  racial  hatred. 

At  present  further  steps  are  being  taken  to  simplify  and  accelerate 
the  creation  of  joint-stock  companies.  For  this  purpose,  independent 
of  the  bill  regulating  the  formation  of  joint-stock  companies  and 
corporations,  there  are  being  prepared  a  series  of  model  constitutions 
for  various  types  of  corporations  and  for  entering  into  partnership. 
At  the  same  time,  the  Ministry,  following  the  policy  of  harmonizing 
the  interests  of  capital  and  labor,  is  taking  up  the  matter  of  allowing 
the  formation  of  joint-stock  companies  in  which  the  laborers  and 
other  employees  would  be  stockholders.  In  the  interests  of  small 
enterprises,  the  Ministry  deems  it  its  duty  to  consider  the  matter  of 
legalizing  companies  with  a  changeable  membership  and  capital,  a 
form  which  would  serve  for  the  consolidation  of  small  merchants  for 
purchasing  operations. 

Striving  to  place  domestic  trade  in  more  favorable  conditions  and 
on  the  sound  basis  which  is  exceedingly  important  for  securing  our 
credit,  the  Ministry  will,  in  the  very  near  future,  pass  legislation,  al- 
ready prepared,  dealing  with  the  registration  of  business  people  and 
firms;  with  bookkeeping,  and  also  with  the  administration  of  commer- 
cial and  industrial  houses. 

Among  other  measures  awaiting  their  turn  to  be  put  into  effect 
are  :  the  radical  reform  of  the  stock  exchange,  laws  regulating  the 
consolidation  of  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises,  the  encour- 
agement of  cooperatives,  the  revision  of  legislation  regarding  arti- 
sans, etc. 

While  outlining  briefly  the  most  important  problems  with  which 
the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  is  confronted,  as  well  as  the 
work  already  begun  in  connection  with  these  problems,  I  must  call 
your  attention  to  the  labor  problem.  Labor  is  the  foundation  of  a 
nation's  riches,  and  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  do  everything  pos- 


268  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


sible  to  place  it  in  a  position  conducive  to  its  normal  development. 
The  Provisional  Government  considers  this  question  as  one  of  vital 
importance.  The  Government  thinks  it  its  duty  to  secure  the  civil 
peace  so  necessary  for  the  country,  by  means  of  a  wide  program  of 
social  reforms.  The  Government  firmly  believes  that  its  social  policy 
will  receive  the  staunch  support  of  all  classes  of  the  population.  It  is 
being  proposed  to  organize,  in  the  very  near  future,  an  independent 
Department  of  Labor,  under  the  guidance  of  a  person  enjoying  the 
fullest  and  unconditional  confidence  of  the  working  class.  The  par- 
ticipation of  a  recognized  leader  of  the  laboring  masses  in  the  work 
of  the  Provisional  Government  would  be  the  best  guaranty  of  success 
in  the  complicated  and  responsible  work  of  social  legislation,  now 
before  us. 

Until  such  time  as  the  Department  of  Labor  is  created,  all  imme- 
diate labor  legislation  is  being  taken  care  of  by  a  special  Depart- 
ment of  the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry,  which  Department  I 
organized  hurriedly  upon  entering  into  office. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  most  vital  needs  of  the  present 
moment,  the  Department  of  Labor  regards  the  quickest  possible 
organization  of  the  working  people  as  its  chief  problem.  With 
this  purpose  in  view,  the  Department  of  Labor  has  already  worked, 
out  a  number  of  bills  regarding  labor  unions,  and  these  will  be 
submitted  to  the  Provisional  Government  in  the  very  near  future. 

A  special  committee  is  investigating  the  question  regarding  the 
length  of  the  working  day,  in  connection  with  the  demand  of  the 
working  class  for  the  immediate  passage  of  an  eight-hour  law.  This 
question  has  in  the  past  held  the  exclusive  attention  of  the  general 
public.  At  present,  the  acute  character  of  the  question  has  to  a 
certain  extent  been  lost.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has  become  apparent 
that  the  leading  industries  do  not  object  to  the  eight-hour  day  as  a 
matter  of  principle,  and  merely  insist  upon  solving  this  question  in 
accordance  with  the  conditions  of  production  and  distribution  in  the 
foreign  and  in  the  domestic  market.  On  the  other  hand,  the  working 
people,  recognizing  the  needs  of  the  Government,  have  renounced  the 
actual  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour  day  in  all  enterprises  engaged 
in  munitions  work,  an  enforcement  which,  if  insisted  upon,  would  prove 
highly  detrimental  to  the  State.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  im- 
mediate and  careful  study  of  this  question  by  the  Department  of 
Labor,  with  the  workers  and  the  manufacturers  equally  represented, 
will  enable  them  to  arrive  at  a  solution  most  satisfactory  to  both 
sides.  In  addition,  the  Department  of  Labor  has  begun  work  on 
legislation  for  Courts  of  Arbitration,  has  finished  the  project  of  a 
bill  regarding  the  organization  of  representative  committees  in  the 
mills  and  factories,  and  is  at  present  preparing  a  bill  creating  a  system 
of  employment  agencies.  In  this  connection,  the  Department  of  Labor 
is  calling  a  special  conference  in  May,  for  the  purpose  of  coordinating 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        269 


the  work  of  the  various  public  organizations  in  this  sphere.  The  laws 
regulating  contracts  between  employer  and  employee  will  be  revised 
at  the  earliest  opportunity.  The  work  will  be  started  by  stretching 
the  insurance  laws  to  cover  new  categories  of  workers,  and  the 
working  out  of  a  bill  for  insurance  against  vocational  diseases.  By 
the  time  the  Constituent  Assembly  is  convoked,  the  Department  of 
Labor  proposes  to  have  prepared  the  necessary  material  for  the 
passage  of  an  insurance  bill  covering  old  age  and  accident. 

Together  with  all  this,  regulations  will  be  worked  out  safeguarding 
the  interests  of  employees  of  commercial  establishments,  and  the 
application  of  Government  protection  to  artisans  and  craftsmen. 

All  these  problems  will  be  worked  out  with  the  cooperation  of 
representatives  of  the  groups  concerned.  They  will  be  called  upon 
to  discuss  the  questions  and  to  agree  upon  a  compromise,  which, 
while  satisfying  to  a  certain  extent  the  interests  of  both  parties, 
will  at  the  same  time  meet  the  requirements  of  law  and  justice 
which  now  form  the  basis  for  the  solution  of  all  our  national  prob- 
lems. They  will  be  called  upon  to  find  a  solution  that  will  safeguard 
the  development  of  the  productive  forces  of  the  country,  and  at  the 
same  time  aid  the  country  in  securing  her  place  as  an  economic 
power  among  other  States. 

Gentlemen,  you  can  clearly  see  from  the  brief  outline  which  I  have 
given  you,  how  enormous  and  how  varied  are  the  problems  which 
the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry  is  called  upon  to  solve  upon 
starting  on  the  new  path  of  its  activities  in  behalf  of  free  Russia. 

We  are  confronted  with  a  tremendous  task.  And  this  task,  which 
would  have  been  utterly  impossible  under  the  old  regime,  must  and 
will  now  be  accomplished.  The  fiery  enthusiasm  which  is  sweeping 
the  country,  inspired  by  the  newly-won  liberty,  is  a  guaranty  that 
this  will  be  done.  Another  guaranty  is  the  consciousness  that  the 
fate  of  our  Fatherland  is  in  our  hands,  that  we  are  the  masters  of 
our  own  happiness. 

For  fear  that  I  may  tire  you  with  my  long  speech,  I  do  not  con- 
sider it  possible  to  discuss  the  fuel  and  metal  situation.  I  trust  I 
shall  have  an  opportunity  to  do  so  in  the  very  near  future.  I  shall 
therefore  pass  over  to  the  other  problems  which  the  Ministry  must 
solve. 

To  proceed,  the  Ministry  considers  it  most  important  to  regulate 
and  develop  our  mining  industry.  This  department  of  our  national 
life  requires  some  radical  reforms.  The  mining  industry  must  be 
raised  to  the  level  necessitated  by  its  exclusive  importance  in  the 
economic  life  of  the  country,  and  by  its  importance  in  connection 
with  the  country's  defense.  The  guiding  principle  in  our  policy 
towards  the  mining  industry  will  be  the  desire  to  develop  it,  not  only 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  country's  demands,  but  also  to  enable  us  to 
export  those  products  of  which  there  is  an  abundance  in  our  country. 


270  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


The  Department  of  Alining  Industries  was,  under  the  old  regime,  even 
more  than  any  other  Department,  guilty  of  the  sin  of  having  neglected 
the  greatest  problem  of  the  present  time — the  problem  of  developing 
the  country's  resources. 

At  present  new  elements  have  been  called  upon  to  participate  in 
the  management  of  the  mining  industry,  and  a  plan  of  work  for  the 
immediate  future  is  prepared.  This  plan  covers  all  the  fundamental 
branches  of  the  mining  industry,  beginning  with  fuel,  black,  red  and 
white  metals,  gold  and  platinum,  and  ending  with  chemical  sub- 
stances and  mineral  waters.  The  most  important  measures  for  the 
development  of  the  mining  industry  which  will  be  applied  in  the  im- 
mediate future,  will  be  the  enactment  of  legislation  separating  the 
rights  of  ownership  of  the  earth's  surface  from  the  right  to  the  de- 
posits underground,  the  nationalization  of  the  underground  riches, 
an  estimate  of  all  resources  on  the  basis  of  data  available  at  the 
present  moment,  also  the  valuation  of  these  resources  in  their  pres- 
ent condition,  and  a  systematic  geological  and  technical  survey  of 
the  country's  territory  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  mineral 
resources. 

All  problems  pertaining  to  the  mining  industry,  it  is  planned  to 
concentrate  in  one  institution — the  Main  Alining  Department,  on 
the  principle  of  possible  decentralization,  with  increased  powers 
granted  to  the  local  administration  and  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
public  and  the  manufacturers. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  preliminary 
work  of  the  Department,  in  connection  with  the  measures  necessary 
for  facilitating  the  restoration  of  our  industries  from  the  war  basis 
to  normal  conditions. 

The  main  question  relating  to  this  phase  of  our  activities,  which 
constitutes  one  of  the  most  immediate  problems  now  before  the  Min- 
istry, is  the  working  out  of  a  definite  plan  by  which  orders  may  be 
placed  by  the  various  Departments,  for  wares  needed  immediately 
upon  the  termination  of  the  war.  In  view  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
the  problem  and  the  tremendous  influence  which  its  correct  solution 
would  have  upon  the  entire  course  of  our  economic  life,  the  Min- 
istry is  forming  a  special  committee  to  be  in  charge  of  all  problems 
connected  with  the  placing  of  orders,  the  centralization  of  all  pur- 
chasing of  raw  materials,  manufactured  goods  and  machinery  from 
abroad  for  our  industrial  needs.  In  addition,  special  attention  will 
have  to  be  devoted  to  the  question  of  preserving,  during  the  transi- 
tional period  immediately  after  the  war,  those  centers  which  have 
been  supplying  industrial  establishments  with  fuel  and  raw  material, 
as  well  as  those  in  charge  of  the  organized  sale  of  our  domestic 
raw  materials  and  manufactures  to  the  foreign  markets.  Finally, 
we  have  the  problem  of  the  demobilization  of  labor  and  the  return 
to  the  factories  and  mills  of  those  who  were  called  to  the  colors  and 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government        271 


who  did  their  duty  for  the  defense  of  the  Fatherland  on  the  field 
of  battle. 

Such  are  our  activities,  such  are  our  plans — these  are  the  funda- 
mental principles  governing  our  conduct  in  regard  to  the  most  im- 
portant questions  of  the  moment. 

Gentlemen,  you  know  that  the  Provisional  Government  derives  its 
strength  irom  the  support  of  the  public.  As  the  Chief  of  the 
Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry,  I  ardently  appeal  to  you  for  co- 
operation in  our  difficult  and  responsible  work.  I  have  pointed  out 
to  you  the  basic  problems  of  our  economic  life,  and  ask  you  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  solving  of  these,  and  furthermore,  I  ask  you  to  secure 
the  cooperation  of  those  who  through  their  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence are  in  a  position  to  facilitate  the  work,  so  that  they  may  enter 
into  the  closest  possible  contact  with  the  Ministry.  Only  by  laboring 
together  will  we  be  enabled  to  speedily  and  correctly  solve  all  the 
most  important  problems  of  the  day,  these  problems  upon  which  de- 
pends the  restoration  of  Russia's  industrial  power. 

Point  out  any  new  problems  which  must  be  taken  up  by  us.  Inform 
the  Ministry  of  all  the  petty  problems  of  the  current  economic  life,  the 
needs  and  wants  which  you,  men  of  experience  and  practical  life, 
want  satisfied.  Such  close  cooperation  would  insure  the  success  of 
the  Ministry's  work.  Only  under  such  conditions  do  I  consider  it  pos- 
sible to  shoulder  the  responsibility  which  my  office  places  upon  me. 

I  greet  you,  active  workers  in  the  process  of  reconstructing 
New  Russia,  together  with  the  other  stable  elements  of  the  nation 
called  upon  to  create  her  might  and  glory.  I  believe  that  the  fiery 
enthusiasm  which  inspires  all  of  you  will  serve  as  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  energy,  so  necessary  for  the  responsible  work  now  before  us. 

Gentlemen,  our  thought  is  free,  free  are  our  actions,  and  our  love 
for  our  great  country  is  infinite.  What  sacrifices  would  we  not 
make  in  the  name  of  the  people's  happiness  and  the  country's  glory! 

To  her,  to  our  free  and  glorious  country,  to  our  great  people,  we 
devote   all   our   strength,   all   our  understanding,   nay,   our   very   lives. 

Long  live  free  Russia!*' 


CHAPTER  III 

The  First  Crisis — The  Resignation  of  A.  I.  Guchkov 
and  P.  N.  Miliukov 

THE  honeymoon  of  the  Russian  Revolution  was  a  brief 
one.  On  May  first,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
P.  N.  Miliukov,  instructed  the  Russian  diplomats  in  the 
Allied  countries  to  transmit  the  following  communica- 
tion, which  brought  about  a  breach  between  the  Provisional 
Government  and  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  and  finally  resulted  in  Miliukov's  re- 
signation : 

"The  Provisional  Government  of  Russia,  on  April  27.  pub- 
lished a  Manifesto  to  Russian  citizens  wherein  it  explained  the 
views  of  the  Government  of  Russia  as  regards  the  objects  to 
be  attained  in  the  war.  The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in- 
structs me  to  communicate  to  you  the  contents  of  the  docu- 
ment referred  to  and  to  add  the  following  considerations : 

"Our  enemies  have  striven  lately  to  sow  discord  among  our 
Allies  by  propagating  absurd  reports  regarding  the  alleged 
intention  of  Russia  to  conclude  a  separate  peace  with  the 
Central  Powers.  The  text  of  the  document  annexed  will  form 
the  best  refutation  of  such  intentions.  The  general  principles 
therein  enunciated  by  the  Provisional  Government  are  in 
entire  agreement  with  the  ideas  which  have  been  expressed 
repeatedly  up  to  qu;+e  recently  by  eminent  statesmen  of  the 
Allied  countries. 

"These  principles  were  expressed  lucidly  also  in  the  words 
of  the  President  of  our  Ally,  the  great  Republic  overseas.  The 
Russian  Government,  under  the  old  regime,  certainly  was  not 
prepared  to  appreciate  and  share  these  ideas  as  to  the  liberat- 
ing character  of  the  war,  the  establishment  of  a  stable  basis 
for  pacific  cooperation  of  nations,  the  freedom  of  oppressed 
peoples,  etc.,  but  emancipated  Russia  can  now  use  language 
which  will  be  understood  by  modern  democracies  and  hasten 
to  add  her  voice  to  that  of  her  Allies. 


The  First  Crisis  273 


"The  declaration  of  the  Provisional  Government,  imbued 
with  the  new  spirit  of  free  democracy,  naturally  cannot  afford 
the  least  pretext  for  assumption  that  the  demolition  of  the  old 
structure  has  entailed  any  slackening  on  the  part  of  Russia 
in  the  common  struggle  of  all  the  Allies.  On  the  contrary, 
the  nation's  determination  to  bring  the  world  war  to  a  de- 
cisive victory  has  been  accentuated,  owing  to  the  sense  of 
responsibility  which  is  shared  by  all  in  common  and  each  one 
of  us  in  particular. 

"This  spirit  has  become  still  more  active  by  the  fact  that  it  is 
concentrated  on  the  immediate  task,  which  touches  every- 
body so  closely,  of  driving  back  the  enemy  who  invaded  our 
territory.  It  is  understood,  and  the  annexed  document  so 
expressly  states,  that  the  Provisional  Government,  in  safe- 
guarding the  right  acquired  for  our  country,  will  maintain  a 
strict  regard  for  its  agreements  with  the  Allies  of  Russia. 

"Firmly  convinced  of  the  victorious  issue  of  the  present 
war,  and  in  perfect  agreement  with  our  Allies,  the  Provisional 
Government  is  likewise  confident  that  the  problems  which 
were  created  by  this  war  will  be  solved  by  concluding  a  lasting 
peace,  and  that,  inspired  by  identical  sentiments,  the  Allied 
Democracies  will  find  means  of  establishing  the  guaranties 
and  penalties  necessary  to  prevent  any  recourse  to  sanguinary 
war  in  the  future." 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  this  document,  a  num- 
ber of  demonstrations,  hostile  to  Miliukov.  took  place.  On 
May  fourth,  however,  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  passed  a  vote  of  confidence  in  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment. The  resolution  of  confidence  was  adopted  by  a 
narrow  margin  of  35  in  a  total  of  about  2,500  votes.  In  making 
public  this  resolution,  the  Council  declared  that  it  had  re- 
ceived, from  the  Government,  the  following  explanation  of 
the  note  to  the  Allies : 

"The  note  was  subjected  to  long  and  detailed  examination 
by  the  Provisional  Government,  and  was  unanimously  ap- 
proved. This  note,  in  speaking  of  a  decisive  victory,  had  in 
view  a  solution  of  the  problems  mentioned  in  the  communica- 
tion of  April  9  and  which  was  thus  specified : 


274  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

'The  Government  deems  it  to  be  its  right  and  duty  to  de- 
clare now  that  free  Russia  does  not  aim  at  the  domination  of 
other  nations  or  at  depriving-  them  of  their  national  patrimony, 
or  at  occupying  by  force  foreign  territories,  but  that  its  object 
is  to  establish  a  durable  peace  on  the  basis  of  the  rights  of 
nations  to  decide  their  own  destiny. 

'The  Russian  Nation  does  not  lust  after  the  strengthening 
of  its  power  abroad  at  the  expense  of  other  nations.  Its  aim 
is  not  to  subjugate  or  humiliate  any  one.  In  the  name  of  the 
higher  principles  of  equity,  the  Russian  people  have  broken 
the  chains  which  fettered  the  Polish  Nation,  but  it  will  not 
suffer  that  its  own  country  shall  emerge  from  the  great  strug- 
gle humiliated  or  weakened  in  its  vital  forces. 

•In  referring  to  the  "penalties  and  guaranties"  essential  to 
a  durable  peace  the  Provisional  Government  had  in  view  the 
reduction  of  armaments,  the  establishment  of  international 
tribunals,  etc' 

"This  explanation  will  be  communicated  by  the  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs  to  the  Ambassadors  of  the  Allied  Powers." 

This  patched-up  peace  certainly  could  not  last  very  long. 
The  resignation  of  Miliukov  and  Guchkov  was  inevitable 
with  the  growth  of  power  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  which,  possessing  an  enormous  in- 
fluence over  the  masses  in  Petrograd,  soon  developed  to  a 
position  where  it  could  really  impose  its  will  upon  the  Pro- 
visional Government.  Finally  A.  I.  Guchkov  resigned  on 
May  13,  and  this  was  followed  by  Miliukov's  resignation,  on 
May  16.  At  this  very  time,  important  meetings  of  the  Council 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  were  being  held,  and 
by  reviewing  the  most  important  moments  at  these  sessions 
we  will  best  comprehend  the  nature  of  the  political  power 
which  brought  about  the  resignation  of  these  two  Ministers. 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  and  its  Relation  to  the  War 

IN  opening  the  session  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  on  May  14th,  the  President 
of  the  Council,  N.  S.  Tscheidze,  the  former  leader  of  the 
Social  Democratic  faction  in  the  Duma,  declared: 

"The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council  has  decided  once 
more  to  send  an  appeal  to  the  nations  of  the  world,  explaining 
the  war  aims  of  the  Russian  Democracy.  This  appeal  has  for 
its  purpose  the  pitting  of  the  voice  of  democracy  against  the 
voice  of  those  who  want  to  end  the  war  on  their  own  basis. 

"For  the  purpose  of  concluding  peace,  the  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has  decided  to  call  an  inter- 
national Socialist  conference.  But  as  long  as  the  war  con- 
tinues it  is  necessary  to  take  all  measures  so  that  our  front 
should  not  yield  and  the  soldiers  with  guns  in  their  hands 
not  falter. 

"The  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has 
decided  to  send  an  appeal  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front,  and  to 
explain  to  them  that  in  order  to  bring  about  universal  peace 
it  is  necessary  to  defend  the  Revolution  and  Russia  by  defend- 
ing the  front." 

M.  I.  Skobelev,  a  former  member  of  the  Duma  and  later 
Secretary  of  Labor  in  the  Provisional  Government,  speaking 
in  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council,  said: 

"The  Russian  Revolution  is  not  only  of  national  significance,  but 
also  of  international  import,  as  you  stated  when  you  sent  your  appeal 
to  the  nations  of  the  world.  The  national  significance  of  the  Rus- 
sian Revolution  has  already  been  manifested,  but  her  international 
importance  has  not  been  established  as  yet.  The  overthrow  of  the 
Tzar  is  not  only  of  national,  but  also  of  great  international  conse- 
quence, for  we  have  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the  international  gen-" 
darme.     At  the  same  time  we  have  started  a  campaign  for  Socialism. 

We  have  not  solved  the  second  problem.  All  the  oppressed  are 
looking  up  to  us,  waiting  to  be  freed  from  the  agony  of  war.  But 
this  liberation  is  impossible  without  revolutionary  armies  in  the 
other    countries.      Therefore,    the    Russian    Revolution    can    rightfully 


276  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


state  to  the  whole  world  that  the  solution  of  the  second  problem  is 
beyond  her  powers  and  that  the  Revolution  itself  is  in  danger  of 
being  crushed  by  International  Imperialism.  Also  that  all  those  who 
present  claims  to  the  Russian  Revolution  must  not  forget  their  duties 
towards  her. 

The  Russian  Revolution,  in  setting  out  to  solve  international 
problems,  must  declare  that  she  is  capable  not  only  of  defending  her- 
self, but  also  of  attacking.  The  Russian  Revolution  must  state  that 
the  army  of  Wilhelm  cannot  be  used  against  Russia's  freedom.  If  we 
make  secure  our  power  at  home,  then  we  have  a  right  to  speak  to 
our  foreign  comrades.  We  have  declared  that  we  want  peace,  but 
not  behind  the  backs  of  our  English  and  French  comrades.  We 
must  categorically  declare  ourselves  opposed  to  a  separate  peace  and 
fraternization.  We  are  for  a  peace  expressing  the  unanimous  will  of 
the  Russian  revolutionary  people.  Democratic  France  is  being 
menaced  by  Germany.  The  German  army,  if  it  crushes  the  French 
and  English,  will  throw  itself  upon  us.  If  revolutionary  German 
regiments  should  come  to  our  front,  we  would  fraternize  with  them, 
but  until  then  the  fighting  power  of  the  Russian  Army  must  bear 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  we  are  always  ready  to  shed  our  blood  in 
defense  of  our  country.  We  offer  to  immediately  begin  peace  negotia- 
tions, at  an  international  Socialist  conference,  with  our  German 
fellow-workers  and  the   Socialists  of  the  other  countries." 

In  conclusion,  M.  I.  Skobelev  suggested  that  the  resolution 
of  the  Executive  Committee,  to  call  an  international  Socialist 
conference,  be  adopted,  and  also  that  appeals  be  addressed  to 
Socialists  of  all  countries.    The  appeals  follow: 
To  the  Socialists  of  All  Countries 

"The  Russian  Revolution  was  born  in  the  flame  of  the  world 
war.  This  war  is  a  monstrous  crime  on  the  part  of  the  imperialists 
of  all  the  countries,  who,  by  their  lust  for  annexations,  by  their  mad 
race  of  armaments,  have  made  inevitable  and  precipitated  the  world 
conflagration. 

Whatever  the  vicissitudes  of  military  fortune  are,  the  imperialists 
of  all  countries  are  equally  the  victors  in  this  war;  the  war  has 
yielded  and  is  yielding  them  fabulous  profits,  concentrates  in  their 
hands  colossal  capital  and  endows  them  with  unheard-of  power  over 
the  person,  labor  and  the  very  life  of  the  toilers. 

And  just  because  of  this,  the  toilers  of  all  the  countries  are 
equally  defeated  in  this  war.  On  the  altar  of  imperialism  they  sacri- 
fice their  lives,  their  health,  their  liberty,  their  property;  on  their 
shoulders   fall  unheard-of  burdens. 

The  Russian  Revolution,  the  Revolution  of  the  toilers,  working- 
men  and  soldiers,  is  not  only  a  revolt  against  Tzardom,  but  also 
against  the  horrors  of  the  world  war.     It  is  the   first  outcry  of  in- 


The  Council  of  Workmen  s  and  Soldiers'  Delegates 


dignation  of  one  of  the  detachments  of  the  international  army  of 
labor  against  the  crimes  of  international  imperialism.  It  is  not  only 
a  national  Revolution, — it  is  the  first  advance  of  the  world  revolu- 
tion, which  will  end  the  baseness  of  war  and  will  bring  peace  to 
mankind. 

The  Russian  Revolution,  from  the  very  moment  of  her  birth, 
clearly  realized  the  international  problem  that  confronts  her.  Her 
powerful  organ — The  Petrograd  Council  of  Soldiers'  and  Workmen's 
Delegates — in  its  appeal  of  the  14th  of  March,  called  upon  the  peoples 
of  the  whole  world  to  unite  for  the  struggle  for  peace.  The  Russian 
Revolutionary  Democracy  does  not  want  a  separate  peace,  which 
would  free  the  hands  of  the  Austro-German  Alliance. 

The  Revolutionary  Democracy  of  Russia  knows  that  such  a 
peace  will  be  a  betrayal  of  the  cause  of  the  workers'  democracy  of 
all  countries,  which  will  find  itself  tied  hand  and  foot,  impotent 
before  the  world  of  triumphant  imperialism.  It  knows  that  such  a 
peace  might  lead  to  the  military  destruction  of  other  countries  and 
thus  strengthen  the  triumph  of  the  ideas  of  chauvinism  and  revenge 
in  Europe,  leaving  her  «'.n  armed  camp,  just  as  after  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  of  1870,  and  thus  inevitably  precipitating  a  new  bloody 
conflict  in  the  near  future. 

The  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  desires  a  general  peace 
on  a  basis  acceptable  to  the  workers  of  all  countries,  who  are  against 
any  annexations,  who  do  not  stand  for  robberies,  who  are  equally 
interested  in  the  free  expression  of  the  will  of  all  nations  and 
the  crushing  of  the  power  of  international  imperialism.  Peace  with- 
out annexations  or  indemnities  on  the  basis  of  the  self-definition 
of  all  nationalities  is  the  formula  conceived,  in  good  faith,  by  the 
proletariat.  It  furnishes  a  platform  on  which  the  toiling  masses  of 
all  the  countries — belligerent  and  neutral — could  and  should  come  to 
an  understanding,  in  order  to  establish  a  lasting  peace  and  with  con- 
certed effort  heal  the  wounds  caused  by  the  bloody  war. 

The  Provisional  Government  of  Revolutionary  Russia  has  adopt- 
ed this  platform." 

To  the  Allies. 

"The  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  appeals  first  to  you. 
Socialists  of  the  Allied  countries.  You  must  not  permit  the  voice 
of  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia  to  remain  without  a  re- 
sponse from  the  Powers  of  the  Entente. 

You  must  force  your  Governments  to  state  definitely  and  clearly 
that  the  platform  of  peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities,  on 
the  basis  of  self-definition  of  nationalities,  is  also  their  platform. 
You  will  give  our  revolutionary  Army,  that  has  inscribed  on  its 
banner  'Peace  among  nations,'  the  assurance  that  its  blood-sacrifices 
will  not  be  used  for  evil  purposes.  You  will  enable  it  to  carry  out, 
with  all   the  fervor  of  revolutionary  enthusiasm,  the  war  tasks   that 


278  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

are  falling  to  its  lot.  You  will  strengthen  the  faith  of  the  Army  if 
you  enable  it  to  realize  that  while  defending  the  conquests  of  the 
Revolution  and  our  freedom,  it  is  at  the  same  time  fighting  for  the 
interests  of  International  Democracy.  Thus  you  will  hasten  the 
coming  of  the  desired  peace. 

You  will  put  the  Governments  of  the  enemy  countries  in  such 
a  position  that  they  will  be  forced  either  to  irrevocably  repudiate 
their  policy  of  annexation,  robbery  and  violence,  or  else  openly  con- 
fess their  criminal  projects,  thus  bringing  upon  themselves  the  full 
and  just  indignation  of  their  peoples." 

To  Austro-Germans. 

"The  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  appeals  to  you.  Social- 
ists of  the  Austro-German  Alliance:  You  will  not  allow  the  Armies 
of  your  Governments  to  become  the  executioners  of  Russian 
liberty.  You  will  not  permit  the  Governments  of  your  countries  to 
utilize  to  their  advantage  the  lofty  spirit  of  liberty  and  fraternity 
with  which  the  Russian  Revolutionary  Army  is  imbued.  You  will 
not  allow  them  to  use  this  spirit  to  move  their  troops  to  the  West, 
in  order  to  crush  France  first  and  Russia  later.  If  you  do,  you 
yourselves  and  the  International  Proletariat  will  be  crushed  under  the 
weight  of  universal  Imperialism." 

To  Neutrals. 

"The  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  appeals  to  the  Socialists 
of  the  belligerent  and  neutral  countries  and  urges  them  to  prevent 
the  triumph  of  Imperialism.  Let  the  movement  for  peace,  started 
by  the  Russian  Revolution,  be  brought  to  a  conclusion  by  the  Inter- 
national Proletariat. 

In  order  to  unite  the  workers  of  the  world,  the  Petrograd  Coun- 
cil of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has  decided  to  issue  a  call 
for  an  international  conference  of  all  the  Socialist  parties  and  fac- 
tions in  every  country.  Whatever  the  differences  of  opinion  which 
have  disrupted  Socialism  for  a  period  of  three  years  of  war  may  be, 
not  a  single  faction  of  the  Proletariat  should  refuse  to  participate 
in  a  common  fight  for  peace,  according  to  the  terms  dictated  by 
Russia. 

We  believe,  comrades,  that  all  Socialistic  factions  will  be  repre- 
sented at  this  conference.  A  unanimous  decision  by  the  International 
Proletariat  will  be  the  first  victory  of  the  toilers  over  the  inter- 
nationalism of  the  Imperialists. 

"Workingmen  of  the  world,  unite!" 

The  appeals  were  unanimously  adopted,  with  the  Bolsheviki 
refraining  from  voting.  I.  G.  Tseretelli,  the  former  leader 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Faction  in  the  Second  Duma  and 
later  Minister  of  Post  and  Telegraph  and  still  later  Minister 


The  Council  of  Workmen  s  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  279 

of  Interior  in  Kerensky's  Cabinet,  proposed  an  appeal  to  the 
Army,  which  he  explained  in  the  following  speech : 

"Comrades,  the  question  of  an  appeal  to  the  Army  is  connected 
directly  with  the  one  already  accepted  by  us,  and  which  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  nations  of  the  world.  The  appeal  to  the  Army  has 
already  been  mentioned  in  the  debates.  The  struggle  for  peace  can 
be  carried  on  only  by  revolutionary  power;  the  power  of  the  Revolu- 
tion will  be  the  determining  factor  in  the  struggle  for  peace.  If  at 
the  present  moment  our  front  should  be  broken,  it  would  mean  the 
crushing  of  the  whole  Russian  Revolution.  The  possibility  for  calling 
an.  International  Socialist  Conference  would  be  destroyed  together 
with  the  Russian  Revolution. 

Do  you  understand,  comrades,  what  an  impression  our  appeal 
would  make  on  the  nations,  if  our  front  were  broken?  They  would 
say:  'We  see  what  an  end  Russia's  example  has  brought.  To  follow 
the  example  of  the  Russian  Revolution  will  result  in  the  ruin  of  the 
means  of  defending  our  country.'  Thus  we  would  turn  all  nations 
away  from  the  revolutionary  path. 

The  entire  democracy,  within  the  country  and  at  the  front,  must 
be  made  to  realize  that  the  Russian  Revolution  is  powerful  only 
while  the  country's  position  remains  powerful.  The  last  delegations 
from  the  front  have  informed  the  Executive  Committee  that  the  sit- 
uation at  the  front  is  critical.  Ignorance  of  the  situation  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  country  is  creating  a  spirit  of  unrest  among  the  sol- 
diers at  the  front.  They  know  not  for  what  reasons  we  call  upon 
them  to  fight. 

Already,  at  the  Ail-Russian  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates,  we  were  told  that  the  soldiers  understand  defense  as 
the  only  possible  strategy,  and  do  not  leave  the  trenches,  believing 
that  advance  means  the  support  of  imperialism.  But  not  by  strategy  is 
the  character  of  the  war  determined.  The  soldiers  do  not  understand 
this  and  are  endangering  themselves  by  refusing  to  advance. 

Our  struggle  for  peace  was  also  incorrectly  interpreted.  They 
think  that  the  struggle  for  peace  and  the  conclusion  of  peace  are  not 
the  same  thing.  It  is  not  possible  to  make  peace  at  the  front.  Fra- 
ternization has  become  a  constant  phenomenon.  A  revolutionary 
army  cannot  fraternize  with  an  army  dominated  by  the  iron  fist  of 
imperialism.     Such   fraternization   must   not  take  place. 

Germany,  with  rapid  strides,  has  concentrated  all  her  strength 
on  the  Western  front.  We  must  prevent  the  future  transfer  of  troops 
and  the  destruction  of  the  French  Army.  This  is  our  duty!  We 
cannot  go  forward  to  a  separate  peace.  If  this  is  so,  we  must  not 
give  France  and  England  the  impression  that  we  will  conclude  a 
separate  peace.  We  must  tread  the  path  of  the  road  agreed  upon, 
and  conducting  the  fight  for  peace,  strengthen  our  front. 


280  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Our  appeal  to  the  Army  explains  the  situation.  We  find  that  lack 
of  understanding  may  prove  ruinous.  Issuing-  the  appeal  is,  of  course, 
not  all  that  we  must  do.  Other  measures  are  also  necessary.  But 
since  we  are  not  everywhere  understood,  it  is  necessary  to  explain 
everything  again  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding." 

Tseretelli  then  read  the  following  Appeal  to  the  Army : 
"Comrades — soldiers    at    the    front,    in    the    name    of    the    Revolu- 
tionary Democracy  we  make  a  fervent  appeal  to  you. 

A  hard  task  has  fallen  to  your  lot.  You  have  paid  a  dear  price, 
you  have  paid  with  your  blood,  a  dear  price  indeed,  for  the  crimes 
of  the  Tzar  who  sent  you  to  fight  and  left  you  without  arms,  without 
ammunition,  without  bread! 

Why,  the  privation  you  now  suffer  is  the  work  of  the  Tzar  and 
his  coterie  of  self-seeking  associates  who  brought  the  country  to 
ruin.  And  the  Revolution  will  need  the  efforts  of  many  to  overcome 
the  disorganization  left  her  as  a  heritage  by  those  robbers  and  exe- 
cutioners. 

The  working  class  did  not  need  the  war.  The  workers  did  not 
begin  it.  It  was  started  by  the  Tzars  and  capitalists  of  all  countries. 
Each  day  of  war  is  for  the  people  only  a  day  of  unnecessary  suffer- 
ing and  misfortune.  Having  dethroned  the  Tzar,  the  Russian  people 
have  selected  for  their  first  problem  the  ending  of  the  war  in  the 
quickest  possible  manner. 

The  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has  ap- 
pealed to  all  nations  to  end  the  butchery.  We  have  appealed  to  the 
French  and  the  English,  to  the  Germans  and  the  Austrians.  Russia 
wants  an  answer  to  this  appeal. 

Remember,  however,  comrades  and  soldiers,  that  our  appeal 
will  be  of  no  value  if  the  regiments  of  Wilhelm  overpower  Revolu- 
tionary Russia  before  our  brothers,  the  workers  and  peasants  of  other 
countries,  will  be  able  to  respond.  Our  appeal  will  become  'a  scrap 
of  paper'  if  the  whole  strength  of  the  revolutionary  people  does  not 
stand  behind  it,  if  the  triumph  of  Wilhelm  Hohenzollern  will  be 
established  on  the  ruins  of  Russian  freedom.  The  ruin  of  free  Russia 
will  be  a  tremendous,  irreparable  misfortune,  not  only  for  us,  but  for 
the  toilers  of  the  whole  world. 

Comrades,  soldiers,  defend  Revolutionary  Russia  with  all  your 
might! 

The  workers  and  peasants  of  Russia  desire  peace  with  all  their 
soul.  But  this  peace  must  be  universal,  a  peace  for  all  nations  based 
on  the  agreements  of  all. 

What  would  happen  if  we  should  agree  to  a  separate  peace — a 
peace  for  ourselves  alone!  What  would  happen  if  the  Russian  sol- 
diers were  to  stick  their  bayonets  into  the  ground  to-day  and  say  that 


The  Council  of  Workmen  s  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  281 


they  do  not  care  to  fight  any  longer,  that  it  makes  no  difference  to 
them  what  happens  to  the  whole  world! 

Here  is  what  would  happen.  Having  destroyed  our  Allies  in 
the  West,  German  Imperialism  would  rush  in  upon  us  with  all  the 
force  of  its  arms.  Germany's  imperialists,  her  landowners  and  capi- 
talists would  put  an  iron  heel  on  our  necks,  would  occupy  our  cities, 
our  villages  and  our  land,  and  would  force  us  to  pay  tribute  to  her. 
Was  it  to  bow  down  at  the  feet  of  Wilhelm  that  we  overthrew 
Nicholas? 

Comrades — soldiers!  The  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  leads  you  to  peace  by  another  route.  We  lead  you  to 
peace  by  calling  upon  the  workers  and  peasants  of  Serbia  and  Aus- 
tria to  rise  and  revolt;  we  lead  you  to  peace  by  forcing  our  Govern- 
ment to  repudiate  the  policy  of  annexation  and  by  demanding  a  simi- 
lar repudiation  from  the  Allied  Powers.  We  lead  you  to  peace  by 
calling  an  International  conference  of  Socialists  for  a  universal  and 
determined  revolt  against  war  There  is  a  great  necessity,  comrades — 
soldiers,  for  the  peoples  of  the  world  to  awaken.  Time  is  needed  in 
order  that  they  should  rebel  and  with  an  iron  hand  force  their  tzars 
and  capitalists  to  peace.  Time  is  needed  so  that  the  toilers  of  all 
lands  should  join  with  us  for  a  merciless  war  upon  violators  and 
robbers. 

But  remember,  comrades — soldiers,  this  time  will  never  come  if 
you  do  not  stop  the  advance  of  the  enemy  at  the  front,  if  your  ranks 
are  crushed  and  under  the  feet  of  Wilhelm  falls  the  breathless  corpse 
of  the  Russian  Revolution. 

Remember,  comrades,  that  at  the  front,  in  the  trenches,  you 
are  now  standing  in  defense  of  Russia's  freedom.  You  defend  the 
Revolution,  you  defend  your  brothers,  the  workers  and  peasants. 
Let  this  defense  be  worthy  of  the  great  cause  and  the  great  sacrifices 
already  made  by  you.  It  is  impossible  to  defend  the  front,  if,  as  has 
been  decided,  the  soldieis  are  not  to  leave  the  trenches  under  any 
circumstances.  At  times  only  an  attack  can  repulse  and  prevent  the 
advance  of  the  enemy.  At  times  awaiting  an  attack  means  patiently 
waiting  for  death.  Again,  only  the  change  to  an  advance  may  save 
you  or  your  brothers,  on  other  sections  of  the  front,  from  destruction. 

Remember  this,  comrades— soldiers!  Having  sworn  to  defend 
Russian  freedom,  do  not  refuse  to  start  the  offensive  the  military  sit- 
uation may  require.  The  freedom  and  happiness  of  Russia  are  in 
your  hands. 

In  defending  this  freedom  be  on  the  lookout  for  betrayal  and 
trickery.  The  fraternization  which  is  developing  on  the  front  can 
easily  turn  into  such  a  trap. 

Revolutionary  armies  may  fraternize;  but  with  whom?  With 
an  army  also  revolutionary,  which  has  decided  to  die  for  peace  and 
freedom.     At  present,   however,  not   only  in  the   German  Army,   but 


282  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


even  in  the  Austro-Hungarian  Army,  in  spite  of  the  number  of  in- 
dividuals politically  conscious  and  honest,  there  is  no  revolution. 
In  those  countries  the  armies  are  still  blindly  following  Wilhelm  and 
Charles,  the  landowners  and  capitalists,  and  agree  to  annexation  of 
foreign  soil,  to  robberies  and  violence.  There  the  General  Staff  will 
make  use  not  only  of  your  credulity,  but  also  of  the  blind  obedience 
of  their  soldiers. 

You  go  out  to  fraternize  with  open  hearts.  And  to  meet  you 
an  officer  of  the  General  Staff  leaves  the  enemies'  trenches,  dis- 
guised as  a  common  soldier.  You  speak  with  the  enemy  without  any 
trickery.  At  that  very  time  he  photographs  the  surrounding  terri- 
tory. You  stop  the  shooting  to  fraternize,  but  behind  the  enemies' 
trenches,  artillery  is  being  moved,  new  positions  built  and  troops 
transferred. 

Comrades — soldiers,  not  by  fraternization  will  you  get  peace,  not 
by  separate  agreements  made  at  the  front  by  single  companies,  bat- 
talions or  regiments.  Not  in  separate  peace  or  in  a  separate  truce 
lies  the  salvation  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  the  triumph  of  peace 
for  the  whole  world. 

The  people  who  assure  you  that  fraternization  is  the  road  to 
peace  lead  you  to  destruction.  Do  not  believe  them.  The  road  to 
peace  is  a  different  one.  It  has  been  pointed  out  to  you  already  by 
the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates;  tread  it.  Sweep 
aside  everything  that  weakens  your  fighting  power,  that  brings  into 
the  Army  disorganization  and  loss  of  spirit. 

[Your  fighting  power  serves  the  cause  of  peace.;  The  Council  of 
"Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  is  able  t6~"c*ohtinue  its  revolu- 
tionary work  with  all  its  might,  to  develop  its  struggle  for  peace, 
only  by  depending  upon  you,  knowing  that  you  will  not  allow  the 
military  destruction  of  Russia. 

Comrades— soldiers,     the     workers     and     peasants,    not     only     of 
Russia,  but  of  the  whole  world  look  to  you  with  confidence  and  hope. 
Soldiers   of  the    Revolution,  you  will   prove  worthy   of   this   faith. 
for  you  know  that  your  military  tasks  serve  the  cause  of  peace. 

In  the  name  of  the  happiness  and  freedom  of  Revolutionary 
Russia,  in  the  name  of  the  coming  brotherhood  of  nations,  you  will 
fulfil  your  military  duties  with  unconquerable  strength." 

This  appeal  was  also  adopted  unanimously,  with  the  Bolshe- 
viki  refraining  from  voting. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front 

THE  previous  chapter  presents  the  ideology  of  the 
Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates in  its  relation  to  the  problems  of  war  and  peace. 
It  must  be  stated  that  at  that  time  the'  Bolsheviki  represented 
only  a-small  minority  of  the  Council,  the  majority  being  led  by 
such  anti-Bolsheviki  Socialist  leaders  as  Tscheidze,  Skobelev 
and  Tseretelli.  Under  their  leadership,  the  Council  at  that 
time  really  expressed  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  Petro- 
grad proletariat  and  with  it  of  the  workingmen  all  over 
Russia. 

There  was  another  political  factor  coming  to  the  fore  at  that 
time,  a  factor  which  soon  began  to  play  almost  a  decisive  role 
in  Russia's  fate.  This  was  the  Army,  which,  under  the  old 
regime,  had  been  deprived  of  every  political  right  and  now, 
with  the  liberation  of  Russia,  was  called  to  participate  in  the 
country's  political  life.  From  this  point  of  view  the  first 
Convention  of  the  Delegates  from  the  Front,  which  opened 
in  Petrograd  on  the  10th  of  May.  is  of  special  interest. 

Of  the  many  speeches  made  at  this  Convention,  the  two 
speeches  of  A.  I.  Guchkov, — the  second  delivered  after  his 
resignation, — and  the  speeches  by  A.  F.  Kerensky,  I.  G.  Tsere- 
telli, G.  V.  Plekhanov  and  by  the  representative  of  the  Black 
Sea  Fleet,  Sailor  Batkin,  were  of  special  importance.  A.  I. 
Guchkov  addressed  the  Convention,  on  May  12.  as  the  Min- 
ister of  AYar  in  the  Provisional  Government,  in  the  following 
words  : 

Guchkov's  Speech 

"Gentlemen:  If  the  Revolution,  which  created  conditions  under 
which  new  Russia  will  now  exist,  has  passed  over  painlessly,  it  is 
due  to  the  realization  on  the  part  of  all  classes  of  the  population  that 
the  old  authority  was  leading  us  to  destruction.  This  was  clearly 
recognized  by  those  who  struggled  in  the  trenches;  this  was  under- 
stood by  the  people  in  the  rear  as  well.  Whomever  I  have  met,  repre- 
sentatives of  various  classes  and  social  stations,  all  of  them  believed 
that  success  was  impossible  as  long  as  the  old  regime  continued. 

After  the  Revolution,  new  constructive  work  was  started.  The 
mere   sweeping  down   of  power  was  insufficient:   it   was    necessary    to 


284  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


start  the  construction  of  the  entire  organization  of  our  armed 
forces.  And  I  may  say  that  we  have  exerted  all  our  strength  to  per- 
form the  work.  If  you  only  knew  in  what  a  pitiful,  disorganized, 
chaotic  state  were  the  economic  affairs  in  the  Army  when  we  took 
it  over  from  the  new  regime!  Nevertheless,  we  have  succeeded, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  matter  of  placing  the  Army  supply  on 
a  sound  basis.  The  situation  is  better  now  than  it  has  been  two 
months  ago.  Do  not  forget  that  the  improvement  was  brought  about 
under  conditions  of  disorganization  in  the  country's  economic  and 
industrial  life. 

Authority  was  swept  down  everywhere.  Mechanics  and  engineers 
were  removed  from  the  factories  and  the  work  proceeded  in  an  unsat- 
isfactory manner.  Great  sacrifices  had  to  be  made  in  order  to  sys- 
tematize the  supply  of  ammunitions.  We  have  achieved  certain  re- 
sults, and  if  things  continue  in  the  same  way  as  they  are  going  at 
present,  there  are  hopes  that  everything  will  be  adjusted. 

The  energetic  and  loyal  support  of  our  Allies,  old  and  new, — the 
Americans  are  aiding  us  to  solve  the  problems  of  obtaining  supplies 
from  abroad, — facilitates  matters  for  us.  If  a  final  agreement  will  be 
reached  with  America,  who  has  undertaken  to  improve  and  sys- 
tematize our  transportation,  a  favorable  solution  of  the  most  pressing 
problems  will  be  assured  in  a  few  weeks. 

The  supply  of  foodstuffs  is  in  a  worse  condition.  But  we  must  all 
know  the  truth.  Upon  this  condition  only  can  we  expect  the  results 
of  our  common  labor  to  be  favorable. 

I  will  say  frankly  that  as  regards  the  question  of  providing  food 
for  men,  and  especially  fodder  for  horses,  the  conditions  are  ex- 
tremely unfavorable.  And  this  is  the  reason:  under  the  old  regime, 
notwithstanding  the  acute  disruption,  there  was  a  power  which  was 
obeyed  and  there  was  an  element  of  force,  without  which  we  cannot 
get  along. 

Take  this  as  an  illustration:  as  regards  the  question  of  food  sup- 
ply, the  local  administrations  do  not  always  comply  with  the  demands 
of  the  central  authorities.  This  is  easy  to  understand  from  a  psy- 
chological point  of  view.  There  is  apprehension  that  the  local  popu- 
lation might  be  short  of  provisions  should  the  demands  of  the  central 
authorities  be  complied  with.  The  people  in  the  various  localities 
feel  acutely  the  interests  of  their  districts  and  prefer  to  retain  the 
provisions  at  home.  Yet  I  always  thought:  'Surely,  we  can  sacrifice 
our  wants  for  the  needs  of  the  front,  just  as  well  as  the  soldiers  are 
sacrificing  themselves  for  us  and  for  the  country.'  It  is  regrettable 
that  not  all  are  imbued  with  this  idea.  Hence,  we  cannot  get  along 
without  a  strong  power  to  which  the  local  organizations  would 
submit. 

Yet  the  matter  of  provisions  is  comparatively  satisfactory.  As  to 
the  fodder,  I  will  say  frankly,  the  situation  is  critical.     You  would  be 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  285 


terrified  if  you  knew  the  number  of  horses  dying  at  the  front.  The 
stock  of  horses  is  melting  away  before  our  very  eyes.  The  forage 
question  is  taking  on  disastrous  proportions.  I  could  prove  this  <:o 
you  by  figures  and  documents,  but  I  think  that  all  who  were  at  the 
front  will  vouch  for  it. 

Just  to-day  I  received  a  telegram  from  the  front  informing  me  of 
the  non-delivery  of  80%  of  the  forage  required. 

Not  long  ago  the  shortage  of  fodder  was  explained  by  demoralized 
transportation.  Now  we  have  adjusted  transportation  and  the  non- 
delivery is  due  to  deliberate  or  involuntary  refusal  of  the  country  to 
give  the  Army  what  it  needs. 

In  this  respect  the  voice  of  the  people,  and  especially  your  voice, 
would  be  of  great  value,  should  you  say  to  the  country:  'Help  to  get 
everything  necessary.'  In  the  course  of  a  month  and  a  half  we  must 
increase  the  delivery  of  provisions  for  the  Army  and  the  situation 
will  then  improve.  However,  we  must  not  only  bear  the  burden  re- 
signedly, but  also  find  ways  to  remove  the  conditions  which  make 
the  shortage  of  provisions  and  forage  possible. 

I  am  coming  to  another  more  important  question,  that  of  equipping 
the  Army.  This  matter  was  always  badly  managed.  The  evil  influence 
of  the  accursed  forces  of  old  Russia  has  affected  our  military  affairs 
more  than  anything  else.  Favoritism  was  rampant  there.  From  this 
very  tribune  I  have  long  ago  pointed  out  and  have  constantly  con- 
tinued to  point  out  that  we  will  achieve  no  success  unless  protection- 
ism— the  pest  of  our  Army — will  be  totally  removed.  I  was  waiting 
for  the  higher  command  to  be  replaced  by  new  men,  but  the  old 
regime,  in  the  person  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  Rediger,  an  absolutely 
honest  man,  declared  that  it  was  powerless  to  do  anything,  though  it 
recognized  the  evil. 

The  Army  had  to  work  under  difficulties  when  the  war  commenced. 
I  and  many  others  were  greatly  alarmed.  We  anticipated  a  catastro- 
phe unless  the  whole  Commanding  Staff  was  replaced  and  the  system 
of  supplying  the  Army  changed.  And  when  the  catastrophe  occurred, 
we  demanded  a  new  Staff  and  heroic  measures,  but  we  got  nothing. 
Instead,  as  I  have  been  informed  by  the  Secretary  of  Justice,  I  was 
considered  under  suspicion  and  the  minute  records  of  my  activities 
grew  into  volumes. 

We  realized  that  unless  the  old  regime  was  overthrown  we  were 
lost.  We  realized  that  the  old  road  had  lead  us  to  quicksands  which 
had  begun  to  draw  us  in.  I  felt  that  we  were  already  in  up  to  our 
necks. 

And  we  entered  upon  new  roads.  We  felt,  however,  that 
there  was  also  danger  lurking  behind  us  should  we  fail  to  understan  1 
that  this  war  must  be  the  last  war,  in  our  lifetime  at  least,  so  that  our 
children  and  grandchildren  shall  wage  no  new  wars. 

Thus   one   of  the   fundamental    problems    before    me   and    the    Pro- 


286  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


visional  Government  was  the  problem  of  replacing  the  old  Army 
officials  with  adherents  of  the  new  regime.  I  knew  our  Commanding 
Staff  and  I  knew  that  there  were  many  men  of  advanced  age,  honest 
men,  excellent  soldiers,  but  men  who  did  not  know  the  methods  of 
modern  warfare,  who  were  incapable  of  adapting  themselves  to  the 
new  conditions.  Indeed,  you  might  place  Napoleon  the  First  at  the 
head  of  our  present  Army  and  he  may  prove  a  failure.  Coming  down 
to  the  solution  of  this  problem,  I  realized  that  clemency  to  individuals 
is  out  of  place;  for  clemency  to  individual  persons  means  injustice 
to  the  Army,  to  the  country. 

Yes,  I  might  have  erred  as  every  one  may  err,  but  I  have  consulted 
with  people  who  know  and  I  have  accepted  their  opinion  only  when 
I  felt  that  it  coincided  with  that  of  the  people. 

As  a  result,  everyone  that  was  gifted  and  talented  in  the  Army 
was  brought  to  light.     And  hierarchy  was   here  disregarded. 

There  are  men  who  were  commanders  of  regiments  when  the  war 
began,  and  who  are  now  Army  commanders.  There  are  colonels 
whom  I  have  advanced  to  the  rank  of  chiefs  of  divisions,  allowing 
them  to  skip  all  intermediate  ranks.  In  this  manner  we  achieved  not 
only  the  improvement  of  the  commanding  forces,  but  also  another 
thing  of  no  lesser  importance.  The  duty  to  the  country,  gentlemen, 
is  a  strong  feeling;  however,  laboring  under  conditions  like  those 
under  which  we  have  previously  worked,  people  were  performing  their 
duty  honestly,  but  without  inspiration.  And  what  we  proclaimed  as  a 
slogan:  'Opportunity  to  the  gifted — everybody  moulds  his  own  for- 
tune'— 'every  private,'  as  the  French  say,  'carries  in  his  knapsack  the 
Marshal's  sceptre,' — fired  the  souls  of  everyone  with  a  joyous  feeling 
and  made  people  work  with  enthusiasm. 

Gentlemen.  I  have  promised  to  enlighten  you  on  a  number  of  ques- 
tions you  are  interested  in.  Permit  me  to  dwell  for  a  while  on  those 
perspectives  which  await  us  and  those  paths  upon  which  we  have  to 
travel.  YVe  have  to  construct  hastily  a  new  life.  Much  has  been 
done,  more  has  to  be  done  yet.  And  on  this  road  there  are  certain 
limits  where  a  scrupulous  and  honest  laborer  has  to  stop.  It  is  im- 
portant to  be  on  the  alert  and  decide  soberly  where  is  that  fatal  line 
of  demarkation  where  constructive  work  ends  and  where  chaos  begins. 

I  am  very  much  in  favor  of  democratizing  our  Army.  The  Army 
is  a  peculiar  organization.  If  we  overthrow,  on  this  road,  all  authority 
whatsoever,  we  defeat  our  own  object. 

The  most  precious  thing  about  every  man  is  the  sense  of  personal 
responsibility.  Every  man  must  know  that  he  is  responsible  for 
his  every  word  and  action.  And  should  we  entangle  such  a  man 
in  a  network  of  conferences,  with  whom  would  the  responsibility  rest 
then?  Indeed,  if  I,  the  chief  of  a  division,  contemplate  to  undertake 
this  or  that  move,  if  I  am  unscrupulous  and  have  no  love  for  my 
country,    if    I   am    a   coward   who    readily   hides   behind    the    backs    of 


The  Economic  Program  of  the  Provisional  Government       287 


others,  then  the  easiest  thing  for  me  to  do  is  to  call  a  conference 
of  fifty  people  and  force  them  to  accept  this  or  that  decision,  for  then 
I  am  no  more  responsible  for  the  results. 

If  we  blunt  and  suppress  this  sense  of  responsibility,  we  shall 
revert  to  the  old  regime,  when  people  were  not  responsible  for  their 
actions.  The  suppression  of  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  is  a 
very  dangerous  matter. 

Believe  me,  gentlemen,  there  is  nothing  more  important  than  the 
reconstruction  of  our  Army  on  new  principles,  in  order  that  our 
Army,  having  made  the  Revolution,  shall  not  give  up  its  main  and 
noble  task  of  defending  and  protecting  the  country. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  not  attempting  to  frighten  anyone,  I  am  only  tellmg 
how  I  suffered  for  three  years  and  what  I  have  lived  through  during 
these  two  months.  Gentlemen,  if  the  country  will  rise,  if  the  Army  will 
not  lay  down  its  arms  and  all  will  be  called  upon  to  cooperate,  then 
we  will  not  only  lead  Russia  to  victory,  but  we  will  make  our  country 
great  and  glorious." 

A.  I.  Guchkov's  speech  was  applauded  by  the  entire  assem- 
blage. While  he  was  speaking,  A.  F.  Kerensky,  then  Minister 
of  Justice,  arrived  and  was  received  with  a  thundering  ovation. 
A.   F.   Kerensky   addressed   the   Convention   in   the   following 

words : 

Kerensky's    Speech 

"Two  months  have  elapsed  since  the  birth  of  Russian  freedom. 
I  did  not  come  here  in  order  to  greet  you.  Our  greetings  have  been 
dispatched  to  your  trenches  long  since.  Your  pains  and  your  suffer- 
ings were  one  of  the  motives  prompting  the  Revolution.  We  could 
no  longer  endure  the  imbecile  lavishness  with  which  the  old  order 
spilled  your  blood.  I  have  believed  throughout  the  two  months  that 
the  only  power  which  can  save  our  country  and  lead  her  to  the  right 
path  is  the  consciousness  of  responsibility  for  every  word  and  every 
act  of  ours— a  responsibility  resting  on  every  one  of  us.  This  belief 
I  still  hold. 

My  heart  and  soul  are  uneasy.  I  am  greatly  worried  and  I  must 
say  so  openlv,  no  matter  what  accusations  I  may  have  to  face  or 
what  the  consequences  will  be.  The  process  of  resurrecting  the 
country's  creative  forces  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  new 
regime,  rests  on  the  basis  of  liberty  and  personal  responsibility.  As 
things  are  being  conducted  at  present,  they  cannot  continue.  A  great 
portion  of  the  blame  may  be  placed  on  the  old  regime.  A  century  of 
slavery  has  not  only  demoralized  the  Government  and  transformed 
the  old  officials  into  a  band  of  traitors,  but  it  has  also  destroyed  in 
the  people  themselves  the  consciousness  of  their  responsibility  for 
their  fate,  their  country's  destiny.  And  at  present  when  Russia 
straightforwardly    and    unhesitatingly    approaches    a    state    of    attairs 


288  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


where  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  will  be  possible, 
when  she  has  taken  her  place  at  the  head  of  the  democratic  coun- 
tries, when  every  one  of  us  is  given  the  opportunity  to  freely  and 
openly  hold  any  views, — the  entire  responsibility  for  the  fate  of  the 
country  rests  upon  each  individual.  At  present  there  is  no  man,  and 
there  can  be  no  one,  who  would  say:  'I  speak,  but  am  not  responsible 
for  my  words.' 

Comrades,  soldiers  and  officers,  I  do  not  know  very  well  what  your 
feelings  are  there  in  the  trenches,  but  I  know  what  is  going  on  here. 
Possibly  the  time  is  near  when  we  shall  have  to  say  to  you,  'We 
cannot  give  you  all  the  bread  which  you  have  a  right  to  expect  of 
us  and  all  the  ammunition  on  which  you  have  a  right  to  depend,' 
and  this  will  not  come  about  through  the  fault  of  those  who  two 
months  ago  assumed  before  the  tribunal  of  history  and  the  whole 
world  the  formal  and  official  responsibility  for  the  honor  and  glory 
of  our  country. 

The  situation  of  Russia  at  present  is  complex  and  difficult.  The 
process  of  transformation  from  slavery  to  liberty  does  not  resemble 
a  parade,  either  in  spirit  or  duration.  It  is  difficult  and  painful  work, 
rendered  particularly  so  through  misconceptions,  mutual  misunder- 
standings, resulting  in  half-heartedness  and  mutual  distrust  degrading 
to  our  free  citizenship. 

The  time  has  passed  when  a  country  could  exist  in  complete 
isolation.  The  world  has  long  since  become  one  family,  which, 
though  frequently  torn  asunder  by  internal  struggles,  is  nevertheless 
bound  together  by  strong  ties — economic,  cultural,  and  others. 

By  establishing  a  democratic  country  in  Europe  at  present,  we 
may  play  a  part  of  tremendous  importance  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  if  we  shall  be  capable  of  inducing  other  nations  to  follow  our 
path,  if  we  make  our  friends  and  foes  respect  our  liberty.  But  for 
this  it  is  necessary  that  they  see  the  impracticability  of  fighting  the 
ideas  of  the  Russian  democracy.  On  this  path  we  can  hold  out  only 
as  an  organized,  powerful,  united  State,  able  to  compel  respect. 
Should  we,  as  contemptible  slaves,  fail  to  organize  into  a  strong 
nation,  then  a  dark,  sanguinary  period  of  internal  strife  will  surely 
come,  and  our  ideals  will  be  cast  under  the  heels  of  that  despotic  rule 
which  holds  that  might  is  right  and  not  that  right  is  might.  Every 
one  of  us,  from  the  soldier  to  the  minister,  can  do  whatever  he 
pleases,  but  he  must  do  it  with  eyes  wide  open,  placing  his  devotion 
to  the  common  ideal  above  all  else. 

Comrades,  for  ten  years  we  have  suffered  in  silence  and  have 
been  forceed  to  fulfil  duties  imposed  upon  us  by  the  old  hateful 
power.  You  fired  on  the  people  when  the  Government  demanded. 
But  now,  when  it  comes  to  obeying  your  own  revolutionary  Govern- 
ment, you   can   no   longer  endure   further   sacrifice.     Does  this   mean 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  289 


that  free  Russia  is  a  nation  of  rebellious  slaves?  (Signs  of  uneasiness 
all   over  the  hall.) 

Comrades,  I  do  not  wish  to  deceive  the  people:  I  must  then  tell  the 
truth.  I  came  to  you  because  my  strength  was  giving  way,  because  I  no 
longer  possess  my  former  courage.  I  haven't  the  previous  convic- 
tion that  we  are  not  facing  rebellious  slaves,  but  conscious  citizens 
engaged  in  the  creation  of  a  New  Russia  and  going  about  their  work 
with  an  enthusiasm  worthy  of  the  Russian  people. 

They  tell  us  that  our  presence  at  the  front  is  no  longer  needed; 
fraternizing  is  going  on  there.  Do  they  fraternize  on  the  French 
front?  No,  comrades.  If  this  fraternizing  is  sincere,  why  don't 
the  enemy  troops  fraternize  on  all  fronts?  Has  not  our  enemy 
shifted  his  forces  to  the  Anglo-French  front?  And  has  not  the 
Anglo-French  offensive  been  halted  already?  As  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Russian  front;  there  is  one 
front,  and  that  is  an  Allied  front. 

We  are  marching  toward  peace,  and  I  would  not  remain  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Provisional  Government  were  it  to  disregard  the  will  of 
the  people  as  far  as  ending  the  war  goes:  but  there  are  roads  wide 
open  and  there  are  narrow,  dark  alleys,  a  stroll  through  which 
might  cause  one  to  lose  both  his  life  and  honor. 

We  want  to  hasten  the  end  of  this  fratricidal  war:  but  to  this  end 
we  must  march  across  the  open,   straight  road. 

We  are  not  an  assembly  of  tired  people;  we  are  a  nation.  There 
are  paths  which  are  long  and  complex.  We  need  perseverance  and 
calm,  to  an  enormous  extent.  If  we  propose  new  war  aims,  then  it 
behooves  us  to  conduct  ourselves  so  as  to  command  the  respect  of 
both  friend  and  foe.     No  one  respects  a  weakling. 

I  regret  that  I  did  not  die  two  months  ago.  I  would  have  died 
happy  with  the  dream  that  the  flame  of  a  new  life  has  been  kindled 
in  Russia,  hopeful  of  a  time  when  we  could  respect  each  other's  right 
without  resorting  to  the  knout,  hopeful  that  we  could  rule  our  vast 
country  not  as  it  was  ruled  by  the  old  despotic  power. 

This  is  all,  comrades,  that  I  care  to  say.  It  is,  of  course,  possible 
that  I  am  mistaken.  The  diagnosis  that  I  have  made  may  turn  out 
to  be  incorrect,  but  I  think  I  am  not  so  much  in  error  as  some 
may  think.  My  diagnosis  is:  If  we  do  not  immediately  realize 
the  tragedy  and  hopelessness  of  the  situation,  if  we  fail  to  realize  that 
the  immediate  responsibility  rests  on  all,  if  our  political  organism 
will  not  work  as  smoothly  as  a  well-oiled  mechanism,  then  all  that 
we  dreamed  of,  all  to  which  we  are  striving,  will  be  retarded  for 
several  years  and  possibly  drowned  in  blood.  I  want  to  believe 
that  we  will  find  the  solution  for  our  problems,  and  that  we  will 
march   forward  along  the  open   and  bright  road  of  Democracy. 

The    moment   has   come   when    everv    one   must   search    the    depths 


290  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


of  his  conscience  in  order  to  realize  whither  he  himself  is  going  and 
whither  he  is  leading  those  who,  through  the  fault  of  the  old  Gov- 
ernment, which  held  the  people  in  darkness,  regard  every  printed 
word  as  law.  It  is  not  difficult  to  play  with  this  element,  but  the 
game  is  apt  to  be  carried  too  far. 

I  came  here  because  I  believe  in  my  right  to  tell  the  truth  as  I 
understand  it.  People  who  even  under  the  old  regime  went  about 
their  work  openly  and  without  fear  of  death,  those  people,  I  say, 
will  not  be  terrorized.  The  fate  of  our  country  is  in  our  hands  and 
the  country  is  in  great  danger.  We  have  sipped  of  the  cup  of  liberty 
and  we  are  somewhat  intoxicated;  we  are  in  need  of  the  greatest 
possible  sobriety  and  discipline.  We  must  go  down  in  history  merit- 
ing the  epitaph  on  our  tombstones:  'They  died,  but  slaves  they  never 
were.'  " 

A.  F.  Kerensky  was  followed  by  I.  G.  Tseretelli,  the  former 
leader  of  the  Social-Democratic  Faction  in  the  Duma.  Tsere- 
telli had  returned  to  Petrograd  after  ten  years'  imprisonment 
at  hard  labor,  in  Siberia,  and  his  speech  at  the  Convention 
of  the  Delegates  from  the  Front  was  one  of  his  first  speeches 
after  that  long  enforced  silence. 

The  Siberian  prison  has  streaked  his  hair  with  gray,  his 
lungs  with  consumption,  but  his  soul  has  remained  unchanged, 
— noble,  devoted  to  the  great  cause  of  Russia's  freedom. 
Tseretelli's  speech  was  time  and  again  interrupted  by  en- 
thusiastic applause. 

Tseretelli's  Speech 

"Comrades,  I  am  calling  upon  you  to  do  identically  the  same  thing 
that  you  are  called  upon  to  do  by  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  which  executes  the  united  will  of  the  revolu- 
tionary workmen,  soldiers  and  peasants. 

The  fundamental  question  of  the  present  moment  is  our  attitude 
towards  the  war.  The  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Delegates  has  clearly  and  definitely  voiced  its  opinion  on  the 
question.  We  must  point  out  that  those  ideas  and  those  slogans 
which  are  prevalent  among  the  revolutionary  democracy  of  Russia 
are  altogether  too  weak  in  our  Allied  countries,  while  the  proletariat 
of  Germany  and  of  Austria-Hungary  have  not  emerged  as  yet  from 
the  intoxication  caused  by  the  chauvinistic  fumes  which  Bethman- 
Holweg,  together  with  the  imperialistic  bourgeoisie  of  Germany, 
used  for  the  purpose  of  stupefying  the  proletariat.  And  now, 
when  the  German  proletariat  marches  hand  in  hand  with  Wilhelm 
and  the  German  bourgeoisie,  our  position  is  clear.  We  say  that 
should  we  now  extend  our  brotherly  hand  to  the  people  of  Central 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  291 


Europe,  i.  e.,  should  we  make  a  separate  peace  with  them,  we  would 
ruin  our  country.  This  would  place  an  indelible  stain  on  our  honor 
and  it  would  lead  to  Russia's  destruction  and  devastation.  Hence  it 
is  clear,  that  for  the  defense  of  our  freedom,  we  must,  while  wait- 
ing for  the  awakening  of  the  German  proletariat,  preserve  the  full 
strength  and  firmness  of  our  fighting  front  and  give  it  the  most 
active  support  by  all  means  available  in  the  rear. 

It  is  not  our  intention  now  to  break  up  our  union  with  our  Allies. 
On  the  contrary,  we  are  using  all  our  efforts  in  order  that  the  alli- 
ance made  by  the  bourgeoisie  shall  be  welded  more  closely  by  the 
cement  of  unity  and  brotherhood  of  the  Democracies  of  the  Entente 
countries.  We  have  taken  many  steps  already  in  that  direction  and 
we  are  glad  to  find  that  a  similar  movement  is  growing  in  those 
countries.  And  I  am  confident  that  soon  the  moment  will  arrive 
when  the  Democracy  of  the  Allied  countries,  united  by  the  same 
slogans,  will  form  an  iron  ring  surrounding  Germany  and  Austria- 
Hungary,  and  will  demand  of  these  peoples  that  they  accept  those 
sacred  principles  in  which  we  believe,  and  then,  if  the  war  will  con- 
tinue, it  will  be  the  fault  of  Germany  alone.  And  until  that  moment, 
the  disruption  of  the  front  will  be  a  crime.  Some  already  talk  about 
breaking  up  the  front,  but  I  do  not  believe  it;  I  cannot  for  a  minute 
assume  that  a  son  of  free  Russia  would  help,  by  his  conduct,  to  deal 
the  death  blow  to  Russia's  liberties,  to  the  cause  of  freedom  the 
world  over. 

The  second  question  concerns  our  relations  with  the  Provisional 
Government.  We  well  realize  the  necessity  of  having  a  strong 
power  in  Russia,  however,  the  strength  of  this  power  must  rely 
on  its  progressive  and  revolutionary  policy.  Our  Government 
must  adopt  the  revolutionary  slogans  of  Democracy.  It  must  grant 
the  demands  of  the  revolutionary  people.  It  must  turn  over  all 
the  land  to  the  laboring  peasantry.  It  must  safeguard  the  interests 
of  the  working  class,  enacting  improved  social  legislation  for  the 
protection  of  labor.  It  must  lead  Russia  to  a  speedy  and  lasting 
peace  worthy  of  a  great  people. 

Our  Provisional  Government  is  on  the  right  road.  The  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies,  and  together  with  it.  all  the  re- 
sponsible and  organized  elements  of  the  Democracy,  support  the 
Government  with  all  the  power  and  authority  at  their  disposal.  Our 
control  is  the  foundation  of  the  power  of  the  Provisional  Government. 
By  supervising  the  Government,  we  lend  it  extraordinary  strength  and 
firmness.  And  when  all  Russia  will  be  completely  united  by  one 
will,  by  one  desire  to  safeguard  fearlessly  and  without  hesitation,  all 
the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  people,  then  all  difficulties  will  be 
overcome." 


292  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

THE  most  outstanding  moment  of  the  Convention  was 
the  second  speech  of  A.  I.  Guchkov,  when  he  addressed 
the  Delegates  from  the  Front  as  a  private  citizen,  after 
his  resignation  as  Minister  of  War  : 

Guchkov's  Second  Speech 

"Allow  me  to  speak  to  you,"  said  A.  I.  Guchkov,  "not  as  the  Min- 
ister of  War.  I  shall  speak  to  you  as  a  Russian  citizen.  Yesterday 
I  informed  the  Provisional  Government  that  I  cannot  remain  Minister 
of  War  and  Navy  any  longer.  To-day  I  sent  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  a 
written  statement  requesting  him  to  relieve  me  of  these  duties. 

"However,  one  more  serious  duty  rests  upon  me,  and  that  is  to 
explain  to  you  and  through  you  to  your  comrades  and  all  the  Russian 
people,  why  I  was  obliged  to  decide  upon  this  step. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  never  feared  responsibility.  In  general  there  are 
very  few  things  that  I  am  afraid  of.  I  fear  first  of  all  and  most  of  all 
the  voice  of  my  own  conscience  and  this  voice  of  my  conscience  has 
forced  me  to  come  to  this  decision. 

Gentlemen,  twelve  years  ago,  when  Russia,  as  it  appeared  then,  was 
entering  upon  the  road  of  reforms,  I  was  also  called  to  governmental 
power.  I  did  not  fear  the  responsibility  but  I  stated  my  terms — I 
agree  to  cooperate  with  only  such  people  who  work  for  the  welfare  of 
the  country  and  according  to  a  definite  program,  but  I  cannot  work 
with  those  whom  I  distrust  and  whose  political  views  I  do  not  share, 
for  that  would  be  deceiving  both  the  country  and  the  public. 

My  position  was  easier  now.  I  did  not  disagree  on  anything  with 
the  people  with  whom  I  had  to  work.  A  better  staff  I  could  not  wish 
for,  and  even  if  there  were  slight  differences  between  us,  our  aims 
were  the  same.  But  even  working  with  comrades  close  to  me  spirit- 
ually, I  could  not  remain  in  office  any  longer,  for  the  entire  Govern- 
ment and  the  Minister  of  War  in  particular,  are  placed  in  such  con- 
ditions that  they  cannot  fulfil  their  duty. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  never  lied.  I  did  not  lie  even  to  the  old  regime. 
And  when  I  was  chosen  President  of  the  Imperial  Duma  and  entered 
into  direct  relations  with  the  head  of  the  old  regime — the  Emperor,  I 
said:  'Your  Excellency,  I  shall  speak  the  truth  only,  hard  and  bitter 
as  it  may  be.  You  are  surrounded  by  flatterers,  who  tell  you  only 
pleasant  things.     Grant  me  the  sole  right  of  telling  you  the  truth.' 

And  likewise  now,  through  you  I  am  speaking  to  the  democracy 
and  to  the  whole  Russian  people  a  word  of  truth.  The  democracy, 
gentlemen,  as  well  as  every  other  master,  has  its  flatterers  who  want 
to  turn  its  head.     (Shouts:  "Right!") 

Gentlemen,  I  am  a  civilian  by  dress,  but  a  military  man,  heart  and 
soul.     I  have  always  loved  war  and  the  army,  not  because  I  possess 


Underwood  &  Una, 


A.  I.  GUCHKOV 
Secretary  of  War  in  the  First  Provisional  Government. 


294  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

blood-thirsty  instincts,  but  because  I  was  convinced  that  a  people  who 
would  create  a  strong  army  before  which  the  enemies  will  tremble 
could  not  fail  to  attain  the  greatest  success  on  the  road  of  peace." 

A.  I.  Guchkov  cited  the  flourishing-  state  of  Germanv  after 
the  victorious  war  with  France  in  1870,  and  continued : 

"I  have  lived  through  four  wars,  gentlemen.  The  war  that  brought 
me  to  a  conscious  reaction  towards  things  and  made  me  judge  things 
sanely  was  the  Russo-Japanese  War.  Before  my  eyes  a  grave  crime 
against  the  Army  and  the  country  was  being  committed.  I  felt  that 
this  Army  might  become  exhausted,  might  be  bled  to  death,  and  no 
matter  how  valiant  and  brave  it  might  be,  it  was  doomed  to  defeat. 

In  the  fields  of  Manchuria,  sitting  with  the  soldiers  at  the  camp- 
fire  and  thinking  over  the  causes  of  our  failures,  I  realized  that  ruin 
awaited  us,  and  I  took  an  oath,  Hannibal's  oath,  to  devote  my  life  to 
the  rehabilitation  and  consolidation  of  the  military  power  of  the 
Russian  Army.  And,  as  you  know,  the  next  few  years,  it  seems, 
gave  me  that  opportunity.  The  movement  for  liberation  placed  before 
us  the  fundamental  problem — the  creation  of  a  strong  military  power  in 
Russia.  Fate  favored  me  once  more  and  I  was  elected  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Defense,  in  the  Duma. 

In  looking  over  the  stenographic  reports  of  my  speeches  from  this 
tribune.  I  recalled  a  great  many  things.  If  you  will  have  leisure  time 
and  you  will  familiarize  yourselves  with  what  the  Imperial  Duma  was 
doing  in  the  sphere  of  defense,  you  will  see  that  there  was  not  a 
single  question  that  it  did  not  touch  upon. 

In  one  of  my  speeches  I  pointed  out  that  the  participation  of  irre- 
sponsible persons,  such  as  our  Grand  Dukes,  in  the  management  of 
the  Army  was  ruining  it.  I  said  that  not  at  a  time  when  every- 
body, as  is  the  case  now,  could  freely  cast  slurs  upon  these  gentlemen, 
but  in  1908,  and  on  account  of  this  they  named  me  'young  Turk'  and 
that  name  has   remained  with   me   ever   since." 

A.  I.  Guchkov  quoted  a  passage  from  his  famous  speech 
about  the  irresponsible  Grand  Dukes  and  remarked : 

"An  interesting  detail,  gentlemen,  when  I  was  speaking  about  the 
irresponsibility  of  the  Grand  Dukes,  someone  exclaimed  from  these 
seats  on  the  right:  'Thanks  to  the  Lord,'  which  meant  'Thanks  to  the 
Lord  that  these  people  are  irresponsible.'  " 

Recalling  the  resolution  of  the  Third  Duma,  which  declared 
that  the  situation  in  the  Artillery  Department  indicated  that  a 
a  catastrophe  was  imminent,  A.  I.  Guchkov  continued : 

"At  the  head  of  the  Artillery  Department  at  that  time  were  people 
very  much  unlike  those  in  power  now,  people  whose  place  should 
have  been  behind  prison  bars,  and  this  resolution  remained  a  voice 
in  the  wilderness,  for  the  post  of  Minister  of  War  was  then  occupied 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  295 


by  an  offender  against  the  State,  Sukhomlinov.  He  was  surrounded 
by  suspicious  characters,  a  band  of  spies,  who  did  everything  possible 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Army  and  the  ruin  of  Russia.  When  I 
learned  of  it,  I  openly  hurled  this  accusation  at  Sukhomlinov  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Committee  on  Defense  and  also  named  Myasoyedov  and 
Altshiller.  You  remember  the  results  :  Sukhomlinov  regained  at  his 
post,  and  .Myasoyedov  was  instigated  against  me  and  n'erc  on  these 
islands  we  fought  a  duel.  He  missed,  and  I  fired  a  shot  in  the  air  to 
show  that  I  did  not  want  to  soil  my  hands. 

When  I  returned  home,  where  I  was  feverishly  awaited,  for  my 
return  was  no  more  a  matter  of  certainty,  I  was  asked  why  I  did  not 
kill  Myasoyedov.  I  shoot  well  and  seldom  miss. . .  I  replied 
that  I  did  not  want  to  save  this  scoundrel  from  the  gallows,  which 
awaited  him.     And  you  know  that  he  got  it. 

I  knew  the  conditions  of  the  Army,  when  our  troops  were  leaving 
for  the  front,  followed  by  women  and  children,  who  paved  their 
way  with  flowers.  Those  were  happy  and  bright  days.  I  went  to 
the  military  authorities,  with  whom  I  had  refused  to  have  anything 
to  do  prior  to  this  and  told  them  that  defeat  faced  us  if  the  supply 
of  munitions  were  not  organized,  and  if  the  General  Staff  of  the 
Army  were  not  changed,  that  our  Army  would  bleed  to  death  and 
perish  and  with  it  the  country  itself. 

When  in  August,  1914,  I  saw  the  unfortunate  remnants  of  the  Army 
defeated  at  Soldau  pass  before  me,  it  was  clear  to  me  that  there  was 
no  escape  from  defeat. 

I  wrote  and  spoke,  but  I  was  not  heeded  and  was  looked  upon 
as  a  pessimist. 

I  came  back  as  a  plain  petitioner,  went  to  all  the  authorities, 
begged  and  implored  them,  but  they  were  as  deaf  as  a  wall.  It 
seemed  as  if  I  were  trying  to  break  through  a  wall  with  bare  hands. 
The  heavy  losses  suffered  in  the  Carpathians  in  March  and  April. 
1915.  forced  all  to  realize  the  situation.  It  opened  their  eyes.  The 
authorities  became  frightened,  the  country  became  frightened  and 
everybody  understood  whither  we  were  headed.  Feverish  work 
began:  Municipal  and  Zemstvo  Unions  and  War-Industrial  Com- 
mittees came  into  existence  and  all  harnessed  themselves  to  the 
common  wagon  and  tried  to  pull  the  Army  out  from  the  mire  in 
which  the  Government  had  put  it.  Something  was  achieved,  but  not 
everything,  by  far. 

We  were  falling  lower  and  lower  until  we  had  given  up  entire 
provinces,  till  we  had  lost  thousands  of  valuable  Russian  lives,  before 
we  realized  that  it  was  impossible  to  work  with  the  old  regime  any 
longer  and  that  the  only  thing  left  us  was  the  overthrow  of  the 
old  order. 

Whatever  the  future  of  Russia  may  be,  I  will  say  that  this  act  of 
overthrowing  the  old  regime  was  a  beneficial  act  which  created  con- 


296  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


ditions  under  which  Russia  can  find  the  road  to  salvation.  That's 
why  I,  far  from  the  revolutionary  atmosphere,  became  a  revolutionist. 
I  saw  clearly  that  the  old  power  was  leading  us  to  defeat  with  all 
its  consequences  and  that  only  its  overthrow  could  save  Russia. 

The  first  week  after  the  Revolution,  I  had  the  joyous  feeling  and  en- 
thusiasm common  to  all  of  us.  Everyone  felt,  it  seemed,  that  he  was 
now  the  creator  of  the  happiness  of  Russia  and  that  a  great  and 
serious  responsibility  rested  upon  him,  and  we  began  to  eliminate  the 
many  shortcomings.  The  work  was  facilitated  by  the  general  en- 
thusiasm. 

Recently  I  received  very  interesting  material  from  the  front — 
reports  describing  the  morale  of  the  Army  during  the  first  days  and 
weeks  after  the  Revolution.  I  read  these  and  thought,  'How  well  the 
Army  has  understood  what  has  happened  and  what  a  mighty  lever 
the  Revolution  has  been  for  the  uplift  of  its  morale!' 

Unfortunately  that  refers  to  the  17th  and  18th  of  March  only. 
Since  then  that  enthusiasm  has  died  away  and  a  crisis  has  arisen. 
We  have  begun  to  go  backwards. 

I  realize  the  fearful  straits  in  which  our  Army  finds  itself — 
an  incredible  physical  and  moral  weariness,  the  result  of  this  hard, 
unusual  war  and  gloomy  life  without  success,  without  victory.  Recent- 
ly Wilhelm  boasted  of  entering  four  capitals.  We  have  captured  no 
capitals  and  so  the  gray  veil  before  our  eyes  has  been  weighing 
heavily  upon  our  souls.  Meanwhile  from  the  rear  the  deteriorating 
influence  of  decay  has  been  making  itself  felt,  the  effect  of  the  mire 
upon  the  healthy  morale  of  the  Army  has  begun  to  manifest  itself, 
and  the  process  of  decomposition  has  set  in. 

We  realized  that  it  was  impossible  to  organize,  manage  and  command 
the  new  Army  of  free  Russia,  according  to  the  methods  of  the  old 
regime.  A  series  of  reforms  was  started.  But  there  is  a  limit  beyond 
which,  despite  all  good  intentions,  the  opposite  becomes  true,  and  there 
we  have  the  beginning  of  the  destruction  of  the  living,  mighty  and 
peculiar  organism  of  the  army.  It  looks  to  me  that  we  have  passed 
the  line  of  demarkation,  we  have  passed  the  limit. 

Gentlemen,  not  a  single  country  in  the  world  is  governed  and 
lives  along  lines  on  which  at  the  present  time  Russia  lives  and  is 
governed,  and  not  a  single  army  in  the  world  is  formed  and  man- 
aged on  the  basis  on  which  our  army  is  built  and  managed.  It  is 
impossible  that  the  personal  responsibility  of  the  leaders  of  the  army 
should  be  eliminated  and  every  move  of  theirs  be  dependent  upon 
sessions,  meetings  and  organizations.  On  a  system  of  elections 
living  States  are  built,  but  on  the  accidental  basis  of  individual  demands 
and  decisions  of  meetings,  neither  the  welfare  of  the  country  nor  the 
welfare   of  the  army  can   be   effected. 

And  here  is  the  danger  that  threatened  us  and  in  the  midst  of 
which   are   now   standing.      We   have   crossed   that   boundary;    beyond 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  297 


begins  something  which  threatens  our  reforms,  the  very  existence  of 
ou-r  Army  and  the  very  freedom  of  Russia. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  are  imperceptibly  returning  to  the  old  order 
and  to  the  fatal  feature  of  the  old  regime,  when  there  was  power 
without   responsibility   and   responsibility   without  power. 

There  is  only  one  road  for  nations  incapable  of  building  a  gov- 
ernment on  new  bases,  and  that  road  leads  through  anarch}-  burden- 
some and  bloody  to  despotism. 

At  times  it  seems  to  me  that  only  a  miracle  will  save  Russia.  I 
believe  in  miracles.  I  believe  that  the  light  of  realization  will  enter 
our  minds,  and  the  gifted  Russian  nation  that  was  able  in  the  past, 
under  the  most  trying  conditions,  to  save  herself,  will  be  able  to  save 
herself  once  more.  I  believe  that  the  Russian  people,  enlightened  by 
a  miracle,  will  lead  us  to  the  bright  road  and  will  save  the  country. 

I,  your  former  Minister  of  War,  appeal  to  you  and  implore  you, 
as  a  Russian,  as  a  member  of  that  beloved  military  family  to  which 
we  all  belong,  I  appeal  to  you  and  implore  you:  Help  to  hasten  the 
coming  of  this  clear  realization  of  the  Russian  people,  and  only  then, 
only  under  such  circumstances,  will  we  save  both  the  Russian  people 
and  Russia  from  ruin." 

The  speech  of  A.  I.  Guchkov  made  a  great  impression. 
After  a  brief  pause,  thunderous  applause  burst  forth.  A.  I. 
Guchkov  himself,  seemingly  agitated,  left  the  Convention. 


ANOTHER  outstanding  speech  at  this  Convention  of 
Delegates  from  the  Front  was  that  of  G.  A".  Ple- 
khanov,  the  founder  of  the  Russian  Social-Democracy, 
who  addressed  the  Convention  on  May  16.  The  Convention 
hall  resounded  with  applause  when  the  Chairman  announced: 
"The  floor  belongs  to  the  veteran  of  the  Russian  Revolution, 
Comrade  Plekhanov." 

Plekhanov's  Speech 

''Not  long  ago,"  began  G.  V.  Plekhanov,  "we  were  officially  con- 
sidered loyal  subjects  of  the  Russian  Tzar.  Right  now  there  is  no 
Tzar;  we  are  not  subjects,  we  are  free  citizens.  The  rank  of  citizen, 
which  we  obtained  as  the  result  of  a  long  and  tenacious  fight,  at  the 
price  of  innumerable  sacrifices,  has  given  us  extensive  rights,  but  it 
also  places  upon  us  great  duties.  Our  first  duty  is  to  safeguard  our 
liberty,  to  safeguard  the  Revolution.  Our  second  duty  is  that  towards 
our  Allies. 

The    inscription    on   our   banner    is    not   oppression    of   peoples,    not 
enslavement  of  anyone,  but  free,  self-determination  of  nations.     This 


298  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


is  our  banner,  the  new  banner  raised  by  the  Russian  Revolution.  Our 
task  at  the  front  is  to  support,  by  all  means,  the  spirit  of  the  Army, 
its  fighting  power.  Under  such  conditions  can  there  be  any  question 
of  fraternizing  of  any  kind?  And  what  is  this  fraternizing  to  which 
some  people  are  inviting  you?  The  German  pike  comes  to  the  Rus- 
sian carp  and,  under  the  pretext  of  fraternizing,  detects  your  military 
secrets  and  observes  your  positions,  in  order  to  seize  them  more 
easily. 

I  am  asked:  'What  should  a  democratic  Government  be?'  My 
answer  is:  'It  should  be  a  Government  enjoying  the  people's  full 
confidence  and  sufficiently  strong  to  prevent  any  possibility  of  an- 
archy.' Under  what  conditions,  then,  can  such  a  strong,  democratic 
Government  be  established?  In  my  opinion  it  is  necessary,  for  this 
purpose,  that  the  Government  be  composed  of  representatives  of  all 
those  parts  of  the  population  that  are  not  interested  in  the  restora- 
tion of  the  old  order.  What  is  called  a  coalition  Ministry  is  neces- 
sary. Our  comrades,  the  Socialists,  acknowledging  the  necessity  of 
entering  the  Government,  can  and  should  set  forth  definite  condi- 
tions, definite  demands.  But  there  should  be  no  demands  that  would 
be  unacceptable  to  the  representatives  of  other  classes,  to  the  spokes- 
men of  the  interests  of  other  parts  of  the  population.  Such  a  de- 
mand is  that  for  the  publication  of  treaties  concluded  with  our  Allies. 
The  question  of  publication  of  treaties  is  one  not  of  principle,  but  of 
expediency.  And  at  the  present  moment  compliance  with  this  de- 
mand is  liable  to  start  you  off  on  the  wrong  road,  on  the  road  towards 
a  separate  peace,  this  idea  which  has  no  adherents  in  our  midst. 
(Turbulent  applause.) . 

We  have  treaties  with  democratic  France.  (Cries  from  the 
floor:  "A  bourgeois  France!")  Yes,  comrades,  a  bourgeois  France, 
but  remember  that  Schedrin  has  said  that  every  Russian  that  loves 
his  country  has  two  Fatherlands,  Russia  and  France.  Only  a  short 
time  ago  you  stopped  singing  'God,  save  the  Tzar,'  and  what  is  your 
substitute  for  it?  The  French  Marseillaise.  Yes,  France  is  a  bour- 
geois country  to  the  highest  degree,  but  Marx  and  Engels  have 
already  shown  us  the  revolutionary  part  played  by  the  bourgeoisie 
in  history,  and  by  the  French  bourgeoisie  particularly.  Just  think 
what  a  break  with  the  Allies,  at  the  present  moment,  signifies — per- 
haps, war  with  them  in  the  near  future,  in  a  shameful  alliance  with 
Wilhelm. 

The  old  Government  was  unable  and  unwilling  to  carry  on  this 
war.  To  attempt  to  prove  it  to  you  would  be  to  repeat  facts  known 
to  all.     At  present  a  free  people  must  protect  itself." 

G.  V.  Plekhanov  explained  the  meaning  of  the  principle 
"free  self-determination  of  nations"  and  of  the  formula  "peace 
without  annexations  or  indemnities."  He  argued  that  the 
restoration  of  the  status  quo  ante  bellum  would  be  not  peace. 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  299 

but  a  truce,  for  such  a  peace  would  result  only  in  the  further 
development  of  militarism. 

To  the  question  as  to  whether  Russia  should  fight,  in  this 
war,  for  the  colonial  interests  of  England,  G.  V.  Plekhanov 
replied :  "The  answer  is  clear  to  everyone  who  accepts  the 
principle  of  free  self-determination  of  nations.  The  colonies 
are  not  deserts,  but  populated  localities,  and  their  popula- 
tion should  also  be  given  the  right  to  determine  freely  their 
own  destinies.  It  is  clear  that  Russia  cannot  fight  for  the 
sake  of  anyone's  predatory  aspirations.  But  I  am  surprised 
that  the  question  of  annexations  is  raised  in  Russia,  whose 
sixteen  provinces  are  under  the  German  heel !  I  do  not  under- 
stand this  exclusive  solicitude  for  Germany's  interests." 

Plekhanov  discussed  in  detail  the  internal  situation  in  Ger- 
many and  explained  why  the  German  democrats  were  power- 
less to  prevent  the  war : 

"In  the  fall  of  1906,"  said  G.  V.  Plekhanov.  "when  Wilhelm  was 
planning  to  move  his  troops  on  the  then  revolutionary  Russia,  I  asked 
rmr  comrades,  the  German  Social-Democrats:  'What  will  you  do  in 
case  Welhelm  declares  war  on  Russia?'  At  the  party  convention  in 
Mannheim,  Bebel  gave  me  an  answer  to  this  question.  Bebel  intro- 
duced a  resolution  in  favor  of  a  general  strike  in  the  event  of  war 
being  declared  on  Russia.  But  this  resolution  was  not  adopted; 
members  of  the  trade  unions  voted  against  it.  This  is  a  fact  which 
you  should  not  forget.  Bebel  had  to  beat  a  retreat,  and  introduced 
another  resolution.  Kautsky  and  Rosa  Luxemburg  were  dissatisfied 
with  Bebel's  conduct.  I  asked  Kautsky  whether  there  is  a  way  of 
bringing  about  a  general  strike  against  the  workers'  will.  As  there 
is  no  s.uch  way.  there  was  nothing  else  Bebel  could  do.  And  if  Wil- 
helm had  sent  his  hordes  to  Russia  in  1906,  the  German  workers 
would  not  have  done  an  earthly  thing  to  prevent  the  butchery.  In 
September,  1914,  the  situation  was  still  worse. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  even  up  to  the  present  time  the 
majority  of  the  German  trade  unions  follow  the  Scheidemanns,  the 
Davids  and  others — there  is  no  place  for  them  in  the  International." 

In  reply  to  a  question  about  the  Army,  whether  it  was  not 
tired  and  physically  unable  to  continue  the  war.  G  V.  Plekh- 
anov answered  : 

"You  ought  to  be  more  familiar  with  the  situation  than  I.  If 
the  Army's  demoralization  has  reached  such  a  degree  that  it  can 
offer  no  resistance,  say  so  frankly  and  put  the  neck  of  the  revolu- 
tionary Russian  people  under  the  yoke  of  German  militarism.  But 
if  there  still  is  any  powder  left,  fight;  you  are  responsible  for  Russia's 


300  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


destiny;  you  have  no  right  to  raise  the  white  banner  in  front  of  the 
German  Emperor.  (Turbulent  applause.)  Our  Army  is  not  yet 
beaten.  It  is  still  sufficiently  strong;  it  is  only  necessary  to  raise  its 
spirit,  and  this  must  be  done  by  you.  You  came  here  for  this  purpose 
only,  you  should  have  no  other  thoughts.  (Turbulent  applause.) 
The  war  has  cost  us  dearly,  but  peace  without  victory  will  be  dearer 
still.  Complete  stagnation  is  threatening  us,  we  are  threatened  with 
China's  fate,  in  Europe." 

Plekhanov  was  asked  whether  by  strong  Government  he 
understood  a  Government  which  would  send  troops  for  the 
pacification  of  peasants. 

"I  have  expressed  no  thoughts,"  replied  Plekhanov,  "which 
would  give  you  ground  to  think  that  I  desire  a  Government 
of  this  kind.  (Applause.)  Fortunately,  there  are  among  you 
no  persons  who  would  accept  the  role  of  pacificators  or  hang- 
men. (Applause.)  I  only  say  that  no  anarchy  should  be  al- 
lowed ;  there  should  be  no  arbitrary  solution  of  problems  to  be 
taken  up  by  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Strong  and  resolute 
moral  persuasion  with  regard  to  those  sowing  the  seeds  of 
disturbance  is  sufficient  for  our  purposes." 

To  a  question  as  to  control  over  the  Provisional  Government, 
Plekhanov  replied :  "A  coalition  Government  should  be  under 
the  control  of  all  democratic  Russia  and  not  under  that  of 
separate  parties.  A  coalition  Government  must  have  the  con- 
fidence of  the  whole  nation ;  it  should  not  be  hampered  in  its 
work,  but  assisted  most  readily." 


AMONG  the  many  speeches  made  at  this  Convention,  we 
must  mention  especially  the  speech  of  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Black  Sea  Fleet,  Sailor  Batkin.  The  Army 
and  Navy  were  still  alive,  and  the  Bolsheviki  represented  only 
a  negligible  minority  at  the  Convention.  Batkin's  speech 
may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  the  expression  of  the  spirit 
of  the  entire  Convention. 

Batkin's  Speech 

"We  greet  all  those,"  said  Batkin,  "who  fought  for  the  young, 
dearly  bought  freedom,  those  in  whom  we  trust  implicitly,  appre- 
ciating their  love  of  the  free  Fatherland  and  of  peace  the  world 
over;  we  greet  those  who  were  sold  out  and  betrayed  by  the  reprc- 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  301 


sentatives  of  the  old  Government,  by  whom  they  were  sent   to  face 
with  bare  hands  the  German  42  centimeter  guns. 

We  greet  those  who,  while  betrayed  by  the  old  Government,  still 
did  not  lose  the  war.  We  greet  all  those  who  neither  now  nor  ever 
will  give  up  our  dear  Russia  or  our  freedom. 

Yesterday,  behind  our  back,  we  were  called  imposters.  Let  them 
verify  our  credentials.  We  are  honest  fighters  and  we  are  coming  to 
you,  comrades,  to  deliver  our  message.  In  case  of  necessity  we 
will  all  go  into  the  trenches  to  protect  the  country  from  the  enemy 
threatening  our  freedom. 

On  the  basis  of  mutual  confidence,  mutual  understanding  and  love, 
we  have  established  an  iron  discipline,  the  bulwark  of  every  civil  and 
military  organization.  For  this  reason  the  Black  Sea  Fleet  can  at 
any  moment  start  an  offensive  and  say  loudly  to  the  whole  world: 
'We  do  not  fear  the  enemy.' 

Although  the  war  was  forced  on  us  in  the  interests  of  the  bour- 
geoisie, free  peoples  are  involved  in  it,  and  therefore  we  have  no  right 
to  refuse  our  help  to  those  who  have  become  related  to  us  by  their 
bloodshed  on  battlefields.  The  French  and  the  English  are  shedding 
their  blood,  as  we  do,  for  the  emancipation  of  all  peoples.  The  Ger- 
man Socialists  were  saying  that  they  were  bringing  freedom  to  us. 
We  have  obtained  this  freedom  ourselves. 

We  should  not  leave  the  friendly  peoples  of  France  and  England 
to  shed  their  blood  alone  in  their  fight  with  the  enemy.  The  Black 
Sea  Fleet  will  never  sign  a  separate  peace.   (Turbulent  applause.) 

If  we  are  against  a  separate  peace,  we  will  also  prohibit  frater- 
nizing. The  Germans  are  only  looking  for  a  convenient  moment  to 
defeat  us. 

If  there  should  be  no  separate  peace,  then  the  very  moment  the 
Germans  leave  on  our  front  a  small  number  of  soldiers,  having  trans- 
ferred the  remainder  to  the  French  front,  we  must  immediately  start 
an  offensive  in  order  to  protect  our  brethren  on  the  French  and 
English  fronts. 

Fraternizing  is  treachery.  The  Black  Sea  Fleet  does  not  believe 
that  there  are  traitors  in  the  young  revolutionary  Russian  Army. 
Fraternizing  is  a  blow  in  the  backs  of  our  Allies  and  treachery  to  the 
cause  of  freedom.  An  army  where  each  one  thinks  only  of  himself 
is  not  an  army,  but  a  disorganized  mob.  Among  us  in  the  Black  Sea 
Fleet  the  officers  are  like  brothers.  Our  discipline  is  based  not  on 
force  but  on  mutual  confidence  and  love  of  Russia.  Only  an  army 
so  organized  can   safeguard  the  freedom  of  Russia. 

Comrades,  one  must  be  politically  short-sighted  to  speak  for  a 
separate  peace  and  to  demand  the  publication  of  the  secret  treaties. 
We  too  are  in  favor  of  the  publication  of  secret  treaties,  but  only  if 
it  will  not  result  in  a  break  with  the  Allies. 

If  we  have   a   government   enjoying  the   confidence   of  all.   let    this 


302  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


government  know  these  treaties,  because  it  is  very  difficult  for  the 
masses  to  understand  the  complicated  international  problems.  Such 
a  government  will  not  betray  Russia. 

We  must  say:  'We  want  nothing  belonging  to  anybody  else,  but 
we  shall  never  give  up  that  which  belongs  to  us.' 

We  are  defending  our  liberty,  but  under  the  present  conditions 
such  defense  means  an  offensive.  We  are  fighting  not  for  conquests. 
We  only  want  to  paralyze  that  power  which  seeks  to  take  possession 
of  our  lands. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  wealthy  people  give  money,  the  peasants — 
cheap  bread,  and  the  .workers — their  work  at  the  looms.  It  is  neces- 
sary that  the  Army  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  side  by  side  with  the 
country's  Democracy  for  the  defense  of  our  Fatherland. 

The  Army  should  say:  'Hey,  you,  who  have  remained  too  long  in  the 
rear;  take  off  your  nice  looking  civil  clothes  and  go  into  the, trenches. 
Hey,  you,  forget  your  discords  and  do  not  ruin  Russia  by  these  dis- 
sensions. You,  all  in  the  rear,  unite  and  help  the  Army,  which  will 
defend  our  freedom.  Strengthen  this  freedom,  you  will  then  receive 
the  land,  which  will  be  given  up  to  nobody  else.' 

And  we,  of  the  Black  Sea  Fleet,  pledge  our  oath  to  you." 

Answering  several  speeches  of  the  Bolsheviki,  Batkin  said : 

"I  shall  not  have  the  courage  to  tell  the  Black  Sea  Fleet  what  I  heard 
here.  I  think  and  hope  that  this  was  said  by  representatives  not  of 
the  majority  of  the  Army,  but  of  its  small  minority.  (Applause.)  The 
Black  Sea  Fleet  thinks  it  is  necessary  to  end  this  war  soon;  but  how 
shall  this  be  done?  We  must  not  waste  time  on  orator}-,  but  talk 
business!  The  Bolsheviki  who  have  spoken  here  are  unable  to  answer 
the  question  as  to  how  the  war  shall  be  ended.  I  am  horror-stricken 
when  I  hear  men  of  the  Army  speak  of  a  separate  peace.  If  these 
words  do  not  express  a  sincere  understanding  of  the  question,  or  are 
not  due  to  misconception,  then  they  are  prompted  merely  by  the 
instinct  for  personal  self-preservation." 

The  following-  resolution  was  finally  adopted  by  the  Con- 
vention : 

"The  First  Convention  of  the  Delegates  from  the  Front,  having 
heard  reports  on  current  problems  from  the  representatives  of  the 
Provisional  Government,  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  and  from  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Socialist  parties  and  having  considered  the  situation, 
hereby  resolves: 

(1)  That  the  disorganization  of  the  food  supply  system  and  the 
weakening  of  the  Army's  fighting  capacity,  due  to  distrust  of  a  ma- 
jority of  the  military  authorities,  to  lack  of  inner  organization  and 
to  other  temporary  causes,  have  reached  such  a  degree  that  the 
freedom  won  by  the  Revolution  is  seriously  endangered. 


The  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Front  303 

(2)  That  the  sole  salvation  lies  in  establishing  a  government 
enjoying  ths  full  confidence  of  the  toiling  masses,  in  the  awakening 
of  a  creative  revolutionary  enthusiasm  and  in  concerted  self-sacri- 
ficing work  on  the  part  of  all  the  elements  of  the  population. 

The  Convention  extends  to  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  its  warmest  appreciation  of  the  latter's  self-sacrificing  and 
honest  work  for  the  strengthening  of  the  new  order  in  Russia,  in  the 
interests  of  the  Russian  Democracy,  and  at  the. same  time  expresses 
its  wish  to  see,  in  the  nearest  possible  future,  the  above  Council 
transformed  into  an  All-Russian  Council  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'   Delegates. 

The  Convention  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  war  is  at  present  con- 
ducted for  purposes  of  conquest  and  against  the  interests  of  the 
masses,  and  it,  therefore,  urges  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  to  take  the  most  energetic  and  effective  measures 
for  the  purpose  of  ending  this  butchery,  on  the  basis  of  free  self- 
determination  of  nations  and  of  renunciation  by  all  belligerent  coun- 
tries of  annexations  and  indemnities.  Not  a  drop  of  Russian  blood 
shall  be  given  for  aims   foreign   to  us. 

Considering  that  the  earliest  possible  achievement  of  this  purpose 
is  contingent  only  upon  a  strong  revolutionary  Army,  which  would 
defend  freedom  and  government,  and  be  fully  supported  by  the  organ- 
ized revolutionary  Democracy,  that  is,  by  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates  responsible  for  its  acts  to  the  whole  country, 
the  Convention  welcomes  the  responsible  decision  of  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  to  take  part  in  the  new  Pro- 
visional Government. 

The  Convention  demands  that  the  representatives  of  the  Church 
give  up  for  the  country's  benefit  the  treasures  and  funds  now  in  the 
possession  of  churches  and  monasteries.  The  Convention  makes  an 
urgent  appeal  to  all  parts  of  the  population. 

1.  To  the  comrade-soldiers  in  the  rear:  Comrades!  Come  to  fill 
up  our  thinning  ranks  in  Tne'trenches  and  rise  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with   us   for   the   country's   defense! 

2.  Comrade-Workers!  Work  energetically  and  unite  your  efforts, 
and  in  this  way  help  us  in  our  last  fight  for  a  universal  peace  for 
nations!     By  strengthening  the  front  you  will  strengthen  freedom! 

3.  Fellow-Citizens  of  the  capital  class!  Follow  the  historic  ex- 
ample of  Minin!  Even  as  he,  open  your  treasuries  and  quickly  bring 
your  money  to  the  aid  of  freed  Russia! 

4.  To  the  Peasants:  Fathers  and  brothers!  Bring  your  last  mite 
to  help  the  weakening  front!  Give  us  bread,  and  oats  and  hay  to  our 
horses.     Remember  that  the  future  Russia  will  be  yours! 


304  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


5.  Comrades-intellectuals!  Come  to  us  and  bring  the  light  of 
knowledge  into  our  dark  trenches!  Share  with  us  the  difficult  work 
of  advancing  Russia's  freedom  and  prepare  us  for  the  citizenship  of 
new   Russia! 

6.  To  the  Russian  women:  Support  your  husbands  and  sons  in 
the  performing  of  their  civil  duty  to  the  country!  Replace  them  where 
this  is  not  beyond  your  strength!  Let  your  scorn  drive  away  all 
those  who  are  slackers  in  these  difficult  times!" 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates 

THE  importance  of  this  Congress  may  be  explained  by 
the  mere  mentioning  of  the  fact  that  the  Russian 
peasantry  constitutes  about  85  per  cent,  of  Russia's 
entire  population.  The  first  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants' 
Delegates  opened  in  Petrograd  on  May  17,  that  is  two  months 
after  the  Revolution.  During  this  time  the  organization  of 
the  peasantry  went  so  far  that  over  one  thousand  Delegates 
arrived  in  Petrograd,  from  all  parts  of  Russia  and  from  the 
Front. 

The  first  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates 
opened  on  May  17,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  in  the 
main  auditorium  of  the  Petrograd  Narodny  Dom  (People's 
House).  The  platform  was  occupied  by  the  members  of  the 
Organizing  Committee,  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  and  by  leaders 
of  the  Russian  Socialist  Parties.  The  Congress  was  opened 
by  S.  S.  Maslov,  later  Secretary  of  Agriculture  in  Kerensky's 
Cabinet,  who  addressed  the  assembly  in  the  name  of  the 
Organizing  Committee,  in  the  following  words : 
Maslov's    Speech 

"It  is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Russia,  in  the  history  of  the 
Russian  peasantry,  that  we  have,  in  you.  a  central  organ  of  all  the 
Russian  peasant  class,  so  completely  representative  and  elected  on  a 
democratic  basis. 

What  are  the  tasks  confronting  this  organ?  They  are  historical 
tasks, — tasks  concerning  all  Russia. 

We  are  living  now  at  a  time  when  everything  is  full  of  movement, 
full  of  creative  meaning  and  hope.  We  have  received  an  historical  in- 
heritance; it  is  enormous  and  burdensome,  but  we  cannot  free  our- 
selves from  it  soon.  You,  representatives  of  the  toiling  peasantry, 
will  have  to  reckon  with  this  inheritance. 

In  my  opinion,  the  past  had  the  three  following  characteristics: 
(1)  The  strangling  of  all  rights  of  the  large  toiling  masses  of  our 
people:  (2)  lack  of  development  of  civil  self-consciousness  on  the 
part  of  these  masses;  and  (3)  the  mechanical  nature  of  all  social 
relations. 


306  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Comrades,  the  past  is  characterized  by  the  crushing  of  the  rights 
of  the  masses;  at  present  we  must  inevitably  suffer  the  consequences 
of  this  former  tyranny.  This  is  always  the  case,  whenever  strong 
oppression  is  exercised,  and  if  the  oppressed  people  possess  life  and 
vigor,  a  reaction  inevitably  sets  in  in  the  people's  mind.  This 
demand  for  rights,  the  present  reaction  against  the  past  deprivation 
of  rights,  is  working  too  strongly,  and  I  am  convinced,  and  I  state 
with  regret  that  at  present,  as  evidenced  among  many  parts  of  the 
population,  the  consciousness  of  their  rights  seems  to  predominate 
over  that  of  the  duties  confronting  them.  (Applause.)  Take  the  war. 
for  instance;  this  fact  of  tremendous  significance,  a  fact  which  every- 
one is  compelled  to  consider  and  which  forces  everybody's  attention. 
irrespective  of  one's  ideas  and  relations, — in  this  respect,  our  first 
task  is  the  earliest  possible  termination  of  this  war,  on  conditions 
which  would  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  country  and  of  the  peas- 
ants, and  the  interests  of  the  Democracy  of  the  whole  world. 

I  know  that  we  are  present  at  a  great  festival  of  all  the  Russian 
peasantry;  please  excuse  me,  therefore,  for  the  note  of  sadness,  the 
note  of  warning  appeal,  sounding  in  my  speech,  but,  comrades,  our 
present  situation  causes  more  anxiety  and  pain  than  joy." 

After  his  speech,  S.  S.  Maslov  declared  the  All-Russian 
Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  open.  Upon  his  motion,  E. 
C.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  was  unanimously  elected  Honorary 
Chairman  of  the  Congress. 

The  appearance  of  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  brought  forth  a 
storm  of  applause.  The  entire  assembly  rose,  as  one  man, 
and  greeted  the  "Grandmother  of  the  Russian  Revolution." 

Speech  of  E.  C.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya 

"Citizens!  During  fifty  years  of  my  reasoning  life,  I  was  only 
thinking  of  that  day,  I  was  only  picturing  the  day  when  the  Russian 
peasantry  would  finally  become  the  ruler  of  the  destinies  of  the 
Russian  people.  My  expectations  have  been  realized.  Citizens.  I  do 
not  know  of  any  one  happier  than  myself,  especially  since  so  many 
excellent,  courageous,  noble  comrades  perished  many  years  ago, 
without  seeing  this  day,  while  I  have  been  lucky  enough  to  live  to  see 
it.  I  have  lived  to  see  you  together,  to  see  you  in  friendship,  to  see 
you  taking  power  in  your  hands. 

We  are  witnessing  now  a  great  triumph,  a  great  festival,  a 
great  joy;  but  all  this  places  upon  us  a  still  greater  responsibility. 
Having  lived  to  this  event,  after  fifty  years  of  revolutionary  ac- 
tivity, it  seems  no  one  could  be  more  happy  and  more  triumphant 
than  I  am;  still,  when  I  received  the  telegram  announcing  that 
the  Great  Revolution  had  taken  place  and  the  people  had  become 
masters    of    their    destiny,    I    began    to    feel    an    enormous    responsi- 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates        307 


bility.  I  thought  instantly:  'Are  we  ready,  are  we  able  not  only 
to  accept  the  Revolution  in  its  present  extent,  but  also  to  bring  it  to 
a  happy  end,  to  the  complete  triumph  deserved  by  the  Russian  people?" 
You  may  take  all  the  happiness  for  yourselves,  your  children  and 
your  grandchildren.  You  may  take  all  the  freedom,  all  the  land,  all 
the  education  you  need,  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood.  You 
have  shed  enough  of  it  during  these  three  years,  you  have  suffered 
enough  to  be  relieved  from  additional  sacrifices.  But.  citizens,  an- 
other sacrifice  will  now  be  demanded  of  you, — that  of  great  concen- 
tration of  your  strength  and  your  attention  to  your  country's  needs. 

However,  I  have  never  doubted,  and  have  no  doubt  at  present,  but 
that  as  soon  as  the  peasantry  will  enter  the  political  arena,  it  will 
show  its  will,  its  wisdom,  its  patience.  The  victory  will  be  decisive.  I 
know  Russia  and  my  people,  and  each  time  when  I  returned  from 
exile,  I  found  the  people  more  and  more  developed,  constantly  seeking 
improvement,  seeking  an  understanding  of  their  own  destiny  and  of 
the  country's  future.  And  at  present  the  work  of  half  a  century  con- 
vinces me  more  and  more  that  I  am  right,  and  especially  right  now 
there  is  no  place  for  doubt.  Going  through  our  Provinces  I  saw  that 
the  peasants  are  in  a  noble  state  of  mind:  they  are  conscious  of  their 
power,  but  at  the  same  time  they  do  not  wish  to  use  this  power  for 
evil,  whether  towards  anybody  else  or  towards  themselves.  TJiey 
are  careful,  economical  as  always;  they  understand  that  it  would  not 
be  to  anybody's  advantage  to  ruin  Russia:  on  the  contrary,  they 
know  it  is  necessary  to  take  care  of  all  her  riches,  all  her  properties, 
in  order  to  improve  them  all  and  to  pass  them  to  their  posterity  in 
improved  condition. 

I  am  at  ease  to-day  because  I  see  that  the  peasantry  has  taken 
a  most  enthusiastic  and  most  serious  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
whole  country.  And  please  remember,  peasants,  that  upon  your 
return  home  you  must  not  forget  these  national  affairs:  they  must 
be  in  your  memory  and  in  the  field  of  your  vision,  because  the  town- 
ship (volost)  is  a  drop,  and  the  district  a  drop,  and  the  Province  is 
a  part  of  a  whole:  the  whole  is  a  power,  which  can  be  destroyed 
or  disturbed  by  no  one  from  the  outside,  as  long  as  you  will  not 
permit   it." 

E.  C.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  then  spoke  on  the  war: 

"No  schools  are  being  built:  the  land  is  not  being  tilled  as  it  should 
be;  all  affairs  are  neglected.  Why?  Because  we  have  war  on  our 
hands;  and,  therefore,  tell  me,  is  there  any  advantage  to  us  in  keeping 
our  front  on  a  war  footing  and  in  allowing  the  people  to  sit  in 
trenches  with  their  hands  folded  and  to  die  from  fever,  scurvy  and  all 
sorts  of  contagious  diseases?  If  our  Army  had  a  real  desire  to  help 
the  Allies,  the  war  would  be  finished  in  one  or  two  months,  but  we 
are  prolonging  it  by  sitting  with  our  hands  folded. 


308  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

And  what's  the  result?  We  do  not  move;  the  war  is  being  pro- 
tracted in  spite  of  us;  and  the  Germans  somehow  or  other  do  not 
accept  the  proffered  hand,  but  prepare  to  fight.  Moreover,  our  Allies 
are  fighting,  and  we  cannot  desert  them. 

Have  you  thought  in  what  situation  Russia  would  find  herself 
if  she  were  forsaken  by  the  Allies,  who  are  all  Europe,  and  if  she 
remained  with  Wilhelm  and  Charles?  This  is  not  to  our  advantage; 
it  is  more  advantageous  for  us  to  be  with  the  French  Republic,  with 
the  American  Republic,  with  the  freedom-loving  England,  and  com- 
paratively better  even  with  China,  which  is  also  a  Republic.  For  this 
reason  even  I,  who  cannot  see  our  ill  or  wounded  soldiers  without 
fright  and  horror,  I  still  say,  let  us  rather  strain  all  our  forces  and 
finish  this  war.  than  prolong  it  endlessly,  and  in  this  way  bring 
distress  to  Russia,  lose  the  friendship  of  our  Allies,  and  put  the  whole 
world  in  a  terrible  situation,  because  the  neutral  countries  are  suf- 
fering and  are  clamoring  for  the  war  to  end. 

Now,  I  wish  to  ask  if  any  among  those  present  know  of  a  way  of 
ending  the  war  without  fighting,  and  if  any  one  tells  me  that  either 
through  magic  or  through  some  successful  maneuver  the  war  can  be 
ended  without  fighting,  I  shall  bow  to  the  ground  before  him.  But 
all  the  soldiers,  officers,  workingmen  and  peasants  whom  I  have 
questioned  have  failed  to  disclose  such  a  way;  on  the  contrary,  every- 
one understands  that  this  war  can  end  either  in  defeat  or  in  victory 
for  us.  Oh,  it  would  be  a  great  joy,  if  the  enemy  were  willing 
to  extend  his  hand  to  us;  but  this  is  not  the  case  so  far;  we  know 
only  one  thing,  namely,  that  Wilhelm  exerts  the  most  enormous  in- 
fluence in  Germany  and  Charles  in  Austria,  and  as  long  as  this  is  the 
case  we  have  no  hope  for  peace,  and  we  must  fight. 

I  advise  you  to  take  the  situation  in  your  own  hands  and  to  demand 
that  which  is  necessary  for  the  people's  welfare,  and  not  that  which 
is  urged  by  individuals  prompted  by  their  personal  considerations. 
Think  what  is  necessary  for  the  happiness  of  Russia,  what  is  needed 
for  making  her  free  in  order  that  all  the  people  may  work  exclusively 
for  the  country's  benefit. 

Yes.  are  not  170,000,000  people  worthy  of  consideration?  They 
cannot  all  be  given  up  to  please  Wilhelm  and  Charles.  I  bow  before 
you  and  beg  you  all  assembled  here,  to  tell  to  all  Russia  that  it  is 
•time  at  last  to  free  our  hands  for  work  useful  to  the  whole  country 
and  not  to  hang  any  more  in  suspense,  as  we  have  been  for  the  last 
three  years."   (Loud  applause,   which   turned  into  an  ovation.) 

After  Breshko-Breshkovskaya's  speech,  S.  S.  Maslov,  speak- 
ing- for  the  Organizing  Committee,  proposed  V.  M.  Chernov, 
the  leader  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  as  Second 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'"  Delegates         309 

Honorary  Chairman  of  the  Congress.     Chernov  was  greeted 

with  an  ovation. 

Chernov's  Speech 

"Comrades,  the  present  moment  is  fraught  with  extreme  difficulties, 
for  old  Russia,  the  old  regime,  has  left  us  an  exceedingly  burdensome 
heritage:  disruption  in  the  country's  economic  life,  an  empty  treas- 
ury and  a  burden  of  debts;  demoralized  supply  and  transportation 
service,  with  chaos  reigning  supreme,  in  all  forms  imaginable.  All 
this  has  been  left  us  while  we  were  engaged  in  the  most  trying  war 
of  unparalleled  magnitude. 

Moreover,  comrades,  when  the  old  order  fell,  it  left  the  entire 
country  in  a  completely  disorganized  state.  The  vital  forces  of  the 
country,  which  were  supposed  to  replace  the  old  order,  were  left  en- 
tirely unorganized,  for  the  entire  policy  of  the  old  order  consisted  in 
splitting  up  those  forces  and  crushing  them.  Its  only  means  of  sal- 
vation was  not  to  allow  the  country  to  unite,  to  keep  all  the  people 
utterly  divided  in  order  to  forcibly  fetter  them  and  hold  the  entire 
country  in  subjection. 

When  the  old  order  was  overthrown,  when  all  that  was  con- 
sidered as  human  dust  rose  in  a  whirlwind  of  indignation  and  wrath, 
and  when  that  void,  with  which  the  old  regime  was  trying  to  sur- 
round itself  by  repelling  all  that  was  sound,  had  caved  in  upon  us, 
the  following  situation  was  created. 

There  was  the  Russia  of  the  bourgeoisie,  the  Russia  of  the  Duma, 
which  was  comparatively  well  organized,  and  the  Russia  of  the  toilers, 
the  Russia  of  the  downtrodden  masses,  who  were  entirely  disorgan- 
ized, but  who  were  fighting  in  the  streets,  shedding  their  blood,  and 
who  finally  overthrew  the  old  regime.  Under  such  conditions,  the 
disorganized  laborers  of  Russia  were  unable  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibility for  reorganizing  Russia,  for  the  formation  of  a  new  govern- 
ment. They  had  to  busy  themselves,  first  of  all,  with  another  still 
more  urgent  and  fundamental  problem,  that  of  organizing  their  own 
forces.  This  organization  had  to  be  effected  hurriedly  and  rapidly, 
and  for  this  task  there  were  not  enough  experienced  people  among 
the  laboring  masses  of  Russia. 

It  was,  therefore,  natural  that  the  toilers  of  Russia  should,  through 
the  revolutionary  Army,  through  the  revolutionary  proletariat  of 
Petrograd,  allow  the  Russian  bourgeoisie  to  create  a  government  of 
its  own  and  to  establish  their  power.  They  allowed  the  bourgeoisie 
to  do  it,  of  course,  not  because  they  recognized  this  bourgeoisie  as  a 
new  autocratic  power.  The  bourgeoisie  was  allowed  to  assume 
power  on  certain  terms  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  laborers,  might 
safeguard  the  cause  of  the  laboring  Democracy  until  such  time  as  the 
Democracy  would  organize  itself  and  assert  its  will  in  the  Constituent 
Assembly. 


310  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


The  original  intention  of  the  democratic  labor  elements  was  to 
wait  as  long  as  possible  for  the  Constituent  Assembly,  preparing  for 
:t.  organizing  the  people  in  order  that  they  might  express  their  will 
in  the  Constituent  Assembly  and  decide  who  is  to  reconstruct  Russia, 
who  is  take  the  power,  and  how  this  power  is  to  be  used.  But,  com- 
rades, the  Russian  bourgeoisie  has  from  the  very  beginning  felt  that 
she  is  hardly  sufficiently  strong,  and  hardly  possesses  enough  prestige 
throughout  Russia  to  bring  her  Government  enough  support  to 
cope  with  all  the  difficulties  created  and  left  by  the  old  regime. 
For.  in  order  to  overcome  these  difficulties,  it  would  not  be  sufficient 
to  replace  the  less  capable  Ministers  by  more  competent  individuals. 
The  solution  of  these  problems  requires  the  concerted  effort  of  the 
entire  people,  the  cooperation  of  the  whole  nation. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  the  Government  must  head  the  forward 
drive,  the  progressive  movement  of  the  whole  country.  The  Govern- 
ment must  be  not  at  the  footboard  of  the  chariot  of  New  Russii, 
who  has  paved  for  herself  a  new  path  and  who  goes  ever  onward  as 
the  people  progress  in  their  work  of  organizing.  The  Government 
must  not  stand  in  the  rear  of  that  chariot,  but  rather  in  the  very  front, 
and  it  is  to  this  task  that  the  Government  of  the  bourgeois  classes 
has  proven  itself  unequal. 

The  Russian  bourgeosie  has  felt  that  she  is  not  sufficiently  strong 
to  get  along  without  the  Russian  Democracy.  In  the  very  beginning 
she  solved  this  question  by  deciding  to  form  at  least  one  link  that 
would  unite  the  Russian  bourgeoisie  with  the  Russian  toiling  masses. 
Our  comrade,  the  first  Socialist  Minister.  Kerensky.  has  accomplished 
the  truly  superhuman  task  of  serving  as  such  a  link,  acting  as  the 
mouthpiece,  expressing  the  spirit  of  Democracy,  the  spirit  of  the 
workers,  the  spirit  of  the  people,  the  spirit  of  the  revolutionary  Army. 
The  rest  of  the  Members  of  the  Government  were  representatives  of 
the  Russian  bourgeoisie. 

As  events  developed,  the  more  apparent  did  it  become  that  the 
growth  of  the  power  of  the  toiling  classes  of  Russia,  the  progress  of 
organization  advanced  at  a  rate  which  surpassed  the  expectations  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  as  represented  in  the  old  Russian  Duma.  And  in 
proportion  as  this  growth  continued,  the  gulf  between  what  the  coun- 
try wished  done  and  what  the  Government  found  it  posible  to  do, 
increased,  the  needs  of  the  situation  growing  more  complicated  and 
disproportionate  to  the  possibilities  offered  by  bourgeois  Russia. 

The  Provisional  Government,  taking  notice  of  this,  and  desiring  to 
possess  full  power  which  would  enable  it  to  shoulder  the  responsibility, 
is  beginning  to  apply  to  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
-  offering  individual  members  Ministerial  portfolios,  inviting  in- 
dividual Socialists  to  enter  the  Ministry,  and  to  become  Members  of 
the  Government. 

How  did  the  democratic  labor  elements  respond  to  this:     As  long 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates         311 


as  it  was  possible,  they  answered  in  the  negative,  saying:  'There  is 
at  present  so  much,  work  in  connection  with  the  task  of  organizing 
the  working  masses  and  so  little  capacity  as  compared  with  the  im- 
mense requirements  of  that  work,  that  we  do  not  wish  to  give  away 
even  a  portion  of  this  strength  before  the  time  comes.  As  long  as 
it  is  possible,  we  shall  support  you  in  so  far  as  you  are  carrying  out 
the  program  on  which  we  are  agreed,  but  we  cannot  accept  these 
positions  ourselves.  However,  when  we  are  properly  organized, 
when  we  feel  sufficiently  the  might  of  the  Russian  working  class,  the 
revolutionary  Army  and  the  peasantry,  then  we  shall  act  otherwise. 
Then  we  shall  have  something  to  back  us  up,  then  we  shall  take  part 
in  the  Government,  and  assuming  the  responsibility,  will  at  the  same 
time  put  forward  such  powerful  masses,  summoning  them  to  our 
aid  in  the  cause  of  reconstructing  Russia  as  a  whole,  that  no  difficul- 
ties will  frighten  us. 

Now,  however,  the  question  that  we  are  facing  is  not  that  of 
organizing  the  laboring  classes,  but  of  reorganizing  Russia  as  a  whole. 
Russia  which  was  left  in  a  pitiful  condition,  practically  in  a  state  of 
disruption  and  chaos. 

This  work  of  reconstruction  cannot  wait,  for  it  is  a  question  of 
saving  the  country,  and  that  is  why  I  ask  you.  comrades,  whether 
Socialists  are  to  assume  the  power  and  whether  their  representatives 
are  to  enter  the  governmental  councils. 

This  question  does  not  mean  that  individuals  enjoying  your  con- 
fidence are  to  accept  ministerial  portfolios.  That  is  a  small  matter. 
The  question  goes  further,  deeper  and  broader.  It  means:  are 
you  for  this  decision  to  immediately  take  into  your  strong  hands 
the  matter  of  organizing  Russia's  local  affairs?  Are  you  rea'i 
this?  Do  you  realize  the  imperative  need,  the  urgent  necessity 
for  building  up  Russia  to  such  an  extent  that  even  though  you 
were  not  sufficiently  organized,  you  would  say:  'Yes,  we  are  ready 
to  stake  all  the  power  we  have,  we  are  willing  to  place  all  our  forces 
at  the  service  of  this  cause,  the  cause  of  organizing  the  local  life 
of  our  free  country  on  a  national  scale,  of  organizing  that  inheritance, 
that  ruined  estate  which  was  left  by  Tzarism,  the  heritage  which 
was  the  family  estate  of  the  Romanovs,  and  which  is  now  our  dear 
beloved  country?'     ("Outburst  of  applause. ) 

Comrades!  We  must  begin  this  task,  this  tremendous  undertak- 
ing, with  the  realization  of  these  duties  which  naturally  devolve  upon 
us.  This  great  task  must  not  be  performed  in  an  easy-going  manner, 
perfunctorily,  for  then  it  would  not  be  a  great  task.  We  must  become 
fully  conscious  of  the  fact  that  here  our  thoughts  and  our  sentiments 
are  going  to  be  blended  into  one  collective  will  to  reconstruct  Russia, 
that  we  must  leave  for  our  local  posts,  there  to  work  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  those  forces  which  were  heretofore  kept  in  darkness. 

The  consolidation  of  all  forces  is  necessary.     Every  peasant,  every 


312  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


village,  every  county,  must  remember  that  they  must  place  above 
everything  else,  not  their  own  interests,  even  though  their  interests 
have  long  been  neglected,  not  the  interests  of  the  village,  county, 
district  or  province,  but  the  interests  of  the  entire  laboring  class  of 
Russia,  of  the  entire  peasantry,  and  finally,  of  Russia  as  a  whole,  for 
the  peasant  population  and  the  factory  workers,  these  two  elements 
form  the  overwhelming  majority  in  the  country. 

Besides  the  agricultural  laborers  and  the  city  laborers,  there  is 
only  the  non-laboring  element,  whom  the  laboring  masses  must  as- 
similate, take  into  their  midst  and  transform  into  brother  laborers. 
This  cannot  be  done  at  once,  but  we  must  start  immediately.  That 
is  why,  comrades,  this  task  must  be  the  concern  of  all  of  us.  The  com- 
mon interests  must  be  placed  above  all  private,  all  local  interests. 
We  must  now  forge  and  shape  that  common  will  among  the  toiling 
masses  of  Russia.  If  we  succeed  in  shaping  it,  Russia  is  saved,  even 
if  we  were  confronted  with  difficulties  two  or  three  times  greater 
than  those  we  are  at  present  facing.  If  our  intentions  are  not  suffi- 
ciently firm,  to  devote  all  our  strength,  our  very  soul  and  life  to  this 
cause,  to  consecrate  all,  to  sacrifice  all,  if  we  lack  this  determination, 
let  us  rather  not  talk  at  all,  but  adjourn  and  set  aside  all  discussion 
either  of  power  or  responsibility,  as  well  as  the  question  of  the  re- 
construction of  our  laboring  Russia.     (Applause.) 

Comrades!  In  thus  viewing  the  problem,  we  have  considered  it 
as  the  most  important  task  to  create  such  a  government  where  the 
representatives  of  the  democratic  labor  elements  might  be  able  to 
suggest  measures  on  their  own  initiative,  and  introduce  their  own 
resoluteness  and  daring,  where  these  qualities  are  necessary,  and 
firmness  where  it  is  imperative  to  be  adamant  to  the  last.  We  con- 
sidered this  an  urgent  task.  The  most  important  question  before  us 
was,  of  course,  not  the  question  of  ministerial  portfolios  There  may 
be  a  few  more  or  less  of  them,  but  that  is  immaterial.  If  we,  as  a 
small  group,  will  rely  ever  more  and  more  upon  the  continually  grow- 
ing labor  masses,  then  those  few  people  composing  the  group  will 
gain  colossal  power,  not  because  of  our  personal  strength  (for  what 
is  our  personal  strength!),  they  will  be  powerful  through  your  and 
our  collective  power,  through  the  organized  might  of  the  working 
class.     (Applause.) 

In  our  estimation,  the  most  important,  the  most  urgent,  are 
the  following  three  fundamental  tasks  of  vital  significance,  stand- 
ing forth  in  modern  Russia:  the  burning  and  pressing  interests  of 
labor  in  the  cities,  a  question  which  comes  within  the  province  of  the 
Ministry  of  Labor;  the  interests  of  the  agricultural  laborers,  a  ques- 
tion with  which  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  is  confronted;  and,  fin- 
ally, the  common  interests  of  labor,  the  question  of  supplying  Russia 
with  all  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  question  of  increasing  the  manu- 
facture of  articles  produced  in  Russia  at  the  present  time,  and  seeing 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates        313 


to  it  that  they  reach  the  places  where  they  are  needed,  that  they  be 
distributed  throughout  Russia  as  fairly  as  possible,  is  also  of  weight. 
Now  it  is  these  three  tasks,  the  solution  of  the  agricultural  problem, 
the  problem  of  the  city  laborers,  and  that  of  supplying  Russia  with 
all  the  necessaries  of  life,  which  stand  out  as  the  most  important  prob- 
lems. These  are  such  difficult  posts,  involving  such  responsibility 
and  labor,  that  if  the  democratic  labor  elements  should  refuse  to 
shoulder  this  task,  they  will  have  failed  to  do  their  duty. 

The  fourth  question  is  that  of  our  Army,  which  is  becoming  better 
organized  at  the  bottom,  which  is  founded  on  the  basis  of  democratic, 
revolutionary  labor  principles.  The  movement  having  begun  and 
gained  much  headway  in  Petrograd,  which  has  carried  on  its  shoulders 
the  entire  burden  of  the  first  decisive  encounter,  has  grown,  spread- 
ing from  separate  points  to  the  entire  Army  at  the  front. 

But  this  Army  of  the  laborers,  this  All-Russian  Army  of  peasants 
and  workingmen,  this  Army  of  Russian  soldiers,  has,  through  the  en- 
deavors of  the  old  regime,  for  centuries  been  driven  along  narrow- 
paths,  not  of  free  democratic  discipline,  but  the  discipline  imposed  by 
those  in  command.  In  this  respect  the  old  Government  did  every- 
thing possible  to  estrange  the  officers  from  the  soldiers  and  make  the 
former  strangers  to  the  Army.  The  soldiers,  in  turn,  became  an  un- 
known quantity  to  the  officers.  The  old  Government  aspired,  in  such 
manner,  to  manage  the  Army  through  the  officers.  The  autocracy  has 
left  us,  as  an  inheritance,  this  two-storied  structure,  of  which  the  lower 
and  the  upper  stories  can  be  combined  only  through  the  efforts  of 
the  democratic  labor  elements,  through  their  representatives.  They 
alone  can  destroy  this  partition,  and  transform  the  Army  into  a 
whole,  moulded  into  shape  by  the  united  will  of  Russia.  At  the 
present  time  the  country  needs  an  Army  with  one  united  will:  this 
concerted  will  must  be,  in  the  present  crisis,  the  revolutionary  will 
of  the  laboring  masses. 

It  is  only  with  the  aid  of  such  an  Army  that  it  is  possible  to 
carry  on  that  great  work  in  which  we  are  at  present  engaged.  This 
is  a  two-fold  task.  It  consists  in  standing  firmly,  as  an  armed  force, 
in  guarding  and  defending  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  which  suc- 
cessfully transpired  in  Russia,  in  defending  the  achievements  of  the 
Russian  Revolution,  and  in  standing  firm  at  our  posts,  prepared  to 
accept  and  to  deal  effective  blows  whenever  necessary. 

That  is  why,  from  my  point  of  view,  the  first  and  main  task,  that 
of  reorganizing  the  Army,  the  system  of  labor  in  the  cities  and 
in  the  rural  districts,  the  matter  of  supplying  Russia  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life — all  these  fundamental  but,  withal,  very  difficult  responsi- 
bilities must  be  assumed  by  us.  When  I  say,  by  us,  I  do  not  mean 
us  individually,  but  I  have  in  mind  all  industrial  labor,  the  peasants 
and  the  proletariat.  (Applause.) 

Comrades,  we  say  that  the  test  of  our  strength  in  the  Provisional 


314  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Government  is  nothing  else  but  the  test  of  our  strength  in  the  coun- 
try. The  greater  the  growth  of  our  strength  in  the  country,  the  greater 
will  be  the  strength  of  our  representatives  in  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. The  more  your  work  of  organizing  the  country  develops,  the 
more  will  the  efforts  of  the  Socialist  portion  of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment meet  with  success. 

Comrades,  if  you  will  now  decide  that  the  moment  has  come  to 
start  the  work, — for  you  in  the  Provinces,  for  us  in  the  Capitals, — 
if  you  decide  this,  if  you  send  us  there,  we  will  remain  as  long 
as  you  stay  at  your  posts,  and  as  long  as  you  let  us  remain  in 
our  places — if  you  decide  all  this,  then  it  will  remain  for  us  to 
realize  the  imperative  need,  the  one  higher  dictate  of  our  conscience, 
to  immediately  commence  work,  and  put  all  that  there  is  best  in  our 
souls,  in  our  minds,  all  our  vital  forces  into  this  great  and  sacred 
cause  in  which  we  must  either  win  or  perish  with  honor."  (Thunder- 
ing applause.) 

At  the  end  of  M.  V.  Chernov's  speech,  S.  S.  Maslov  moved 
that  Vera  N.  Figner  be  elected  Honorary  Chairman  of  the 
Congress.  The  motion  was  met  with  prolonged  applause. 
N.  D.  Avksentiev,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists  and  later  Minister  of  Interior  in  Kerensky's 
Cabinet,  was  elected  Chairman  of  the  Congress. 

In  his  introductory  speech,  N.  D.  Avksentiev  declared  that 
"the  extensive  rights  received  by  the  Russian  people  place 
upon  them  heavy  responsibilities.  It  is  in  the  interest  of  free- 
dom that  these  responsibilities  be  met  as  fully  as  possible. 
The  principal  task  of  the  moment  is  the  strengthening  of  free- 
dom and  the  constructive  work  in  the  Government  " 

N.  D.  Avksentiev  announced  the  presence  in  the  auditorium 
of  the  French  Minister,  Albert  Thomas,  and  of  the  Minister 
of  Agriculture,  A.  I.  Shingariev.  Both  of  them  greeted  the 
Coneress. 


THE  next  day,  May  18,  V.  M.  Chernov  addressed  the 
Congress  as  the  new  Minister  of  Agriculture  in  the 
Provisional  Government. 

Chernov's  Second  Speech 

"In  the  very  beginning,"  said  V.  M.  Chernov,  "Russia  doubted 
whether  the  form  of  government  selected  by  it  would  be  suited  to 
overcome  all  the  difficulties  left  by  the  old  regime. 

Now  it  is  a  question  of  mustering  all  our   forces   for  service,   of 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates         315 


bringing  order  into  every  locality  throughout  the  country,  this  ruined 
estate,  the  heritage  of  the  Tzar's  regime,  the  estate  which  was  the 
Romanov  patrimony  and  which  is  now  our  beloved,  dear  Fatherland. 
(Thundering  applause.) 

It  is  an  enormous  piece  of  work  and  should  be  undertaken  with 
a  knowledge  of  all  our  obligations.  When  every  peasant,  every 
village,  every  volost  (district)  will  remember  that  they  should  place 
first  not  their  own  interests  and  not  even  those  of  their  village,  volost 
(district)  or  county,  but  the  interests  of  the  whole  peasantry,  the 
whole  working  class,  and,  finally,  the  interests  of  the  whole  of  Russia — 
then  we  shall  be  fully  successful,  and  Russia  will  be  saved." 

V.  M.  Chernov  spoke  further  on  the  situation  in  the  Army: 

"Russia  needs,  at  present,  an  army  with  a  united  iron  will,  and 
this  will  can  and  should  be  only  that  of  the  revolutionary  toiling 
classes.  Only  with  an  army  of  this  kind  can  an  enormous  undertaking 
like  ours  be  carried  on.  This  is  a  double  undertaking:  that  of  defend- 
ing and  protecting  the  Revolution,  and  of  standing  firm,  ready  to 
return  to  the  enemy  blow  for  blow.  We  must  not  forget  that 
Russia  is  defending  not  only  herself,  but  also  all  of  humanity;  she 
is  defending  the  idea  of  a  durable  peace,  and  in  this  she  should  have 
the  cooperation  of  the  workers  of  all  countries,  even  of  those  now 
at  war  with  us."  (Applause.) 

The  next  speaker  was  the  Minister  of  Supply.  V.  A.  Pe- 
shekhonov.  During  his  speech,  A.  F.  Kerensky  appeared  in 
the  auditorium.  The  entire  assembly  rose  to  greet  him.  \  .  A. 
Peshekhonov  cut  short  his  speech  and  gave  the  floor  to 
Kerensky.  Instantly  there  was  absolute  silence  in  the  audi- 
torium. 

Kerensky's  Speech 

"Comrades-peasants,"  began  A.  F.  Kerensky,  "I  have  come  here 
to-day,  at  the  most  beautiful  but  at  the  same  time  most  difficult 
moment  of  Russia's  history.  I  have  come  here  as  your  Minister  of 
the  Army  and  Navy.   (Enthusiastic  applause.) 

Our  purpose,  the  purpose  of  the  Provisional  Government,  is.  in 
conformity  with  the  will  of  the  Russian  people  and  in  cooperation 
with  the  Russian  people,  to  save  everything  given  us  by  the  Revolu- 
tion—the land  and  freedom.  (Thundering  and  prolonged  applause.) 

During  the  period  of  this  great  Revolution  we  must  remember 
that  we  are  not  alone,  for  we  have  with  us  our  old  teachers.  Here 
they  are.  (Kerensky  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  President  and 
the  officers.) 

Comrades,  soldiers,  sailors,  officers!  I  call  you  to  the  last 
heroic  deed.  I  am  your  most  humble  servant.  Show  that  the  Russian 
Army  is  not  a  crumbling  structure,  not  a  conglomeration  of  people  un- 


316  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

willing  to  do  anything,  but  an  enormous,  threatening  force  which 
will  know  how  to  gain  respect  for  itself  and  how  to  defend  the  free 
Russian  Democratic  Republic.  Show  that  Russia  is  not  a  country  of 
autocratic  adventurers,  but  a  friendly  family  of  free  people  who  will 
be  able  to  defend  their  freedom  and  their  rights. 

I  was  never  connected  with  the  military  circles.  It  will  perhaps 
seem  strange  to  many  that  I,  unfamiliar  with  military  affairs,  have 
taken  upon  myself  these  special  military  problems,  but  I  have  under- 
taken them  and  I  hope  to  carry  them  to  a  solution. 

I  intend  to  establish  an  iron  discipline  in  the  Army;  I  am  certain 
I  shall  succeed  in  my  undertaking,  because  it  will  be  a  discipline 
based  on  duty  towards  the  country,  the  duty  of  honor.  Its  aim  will 
be  to  safeguard  the  right  of  the  Russian  people  to  independence  and 
liberty  at  home. 

By  all  means,  we  must  see  that  the  country  becomes  free  and 
strong  enough  to  elect  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  Assembly  which, 
through  its  sovereign,  absolute  power,  will  give  to  the  Russian  toiling 
peasants  that  for  which  they  have  been  yearning  for  centuries,  the 
land. 

I  am  certain  that  the  Council  of  the  Russian  land — the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  toiling  peasantry — will  assert  their  will  and  declare 
that  they  want  no  repetition  of  the  sad  events  of  1905-1906,  when 
the  entire  country  seemed  already  in  our  hands,  but  slipped  out 
because  it  became  involved  in  anarchy.  The  result  of  discord  in  our 
country  was  that  the  ruling  classes  gave  themselves  up  to  P.  A. 
Stolypin.  the  furious  enemy  of  Democracy.  Do  not  repeat  this  blun- 
der. Be  careful  and  do  not  trust  to  cheap  and  irresponsible  slogans, 
for  they  are  likely  to  drag  you  into  an  abyss.  Trust  those  who  have 
always  been  with  you  and  in  the  dark  years  of  autocracy  were  not 
afraid  to  tell  the  truth  to  their  enemies.  If  those  people  are  now 
telling  you  to  wait,  that  means  that  they  want  to  give  you  all,  not  to 
leave  you  with  a  broken  trough. 

We  are  afraid  of  no  demagogues,  whether  they  come  from  the 
right  or  from  the  left.  (Applause.)  Quietly  and  firmly  we  shall  attend 
to  our  business,  which  is  the  business  of  the  whole  of  free  Russia. 

I  intend  to  go  to  the  front  shortly.  Allow  me  to  tell  those  who 
are  now  in  the  trenches  that  the  Russian  peasants  want  land  and 
freedom  and  will  give  them  up  to  no  one.  Let  me  also  say  that 
everyone  must  remain  there  and  perform  his  duty  to  the  end." 

The  close  of  A.  F.  Kerensky's  speech  was  lost  in  loud,  en- 
thusiastic applause,  which  turned  into  a  grand  ovation. 

The  members  of  the  Congress  left  their  seats  and  surround- 
ed the  platform.  One  of  the  Delegates,  a  knight  of  the  Order 
of   St.   George,   put  an   armchair  on  the  platform  and   asked 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates        317 

A.  F.  Kerensky  to  allow  himself  to  be  raised  on  their  hands. 
This  request  the  soldier  followed  up  with :  "You  are  our 
leader  and  we  swear  to  go  wherever  you  lead  us." 

One  of  the  outstanding-  moments  in  the  session  of  the 
Congress,  on  May  20,  was  the  report  by  Dr.  Smirnov,  a 
physician,  who  had  just  returned  from  the  German  prison 
camp.  Dr.  Smirnov's  report  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
the  Peasants'  Delegates. 

Dr.  Smirnov's  Speech 

"I  call  you  now  dear  brothers,"  said  Dr.  Smirnov,  "but  for  thirty 
months  which  I  spent  in  suffering  in  the  German  war  prison  camps  I 
could  not  say  that.  You  alone  can  defend  us,  you  have  the  strength 
and  the  opportunity  to  improve  the  situation  of  our  unfortunate  war 
prisoners.  The  sufferings  of  our  comrades  are  terrible.  About  two 
million  of  our  peasants  and  workers  are  in  German  captivity;  about 
500.000  lie  in  the  ground  already;  and  if  we  do  not  help  those  that  are 
alive,  we  physicians  think  that  only  one-half  of  these  two  million  will 
return  to  Russia.  They  are  exhausted  by  overwork  and  by  hunger; 
they  do  not  get  enough  bread. 

They  are  exhausted  by  overwork  because  they  are  compelled  to 
work  without  food,  twelve,  fifteen,  twenty-five  and  thirty-six  hours 
without  stopping,  because  their  strength  is  drawn  out  of  them  to  the 
point  of  inexpressible  suffering.  I  worked  in  the  labor  battalions 
shifted  from  the  heart  of  Germany  to  the  front,  where  there  is 
no  control  over  the  German  treatment  of  war  prisoners,  and  I  can 
say  that  the  sufferings  of  our  soldiers  are  great;  they  are  being 
beaten  with  sticks  and  bayonets;  they  are  hung  on  trees  and  crucified. 
If  a  prisoner  falls,  exhausted,  he  is  plunged  for  several  hours  in  cold 
water  in  order  to  revive  his  strength;  then  he  gets  up  and  under 
sticks  pulls  together  the  remnants  of  his  strength  and  works,  because 
our  average  Russian  is  used  to  great  exertion.  And  when  he 
again  becomes  exhausted  and  falls,  they  resort  to  other  methods. 
They  raise  him,  point  bayonets  under  his  nose  and  make  him  stand 
in  this  way.  (Voices:  "Shame!  Kultur  beasts!")  They  are  compelled 
to  work  for  Germany's  defense  against  Russia  and  against  our  Allies. 
When  the  Russian  prisoner  becomes  completely  exhausted  he  is 
brought  to  the  hospital,  unable  to  say  a  word,  almost  dead;  after  two 
days  the  prisoner  is  dead. 

When  we  were  leaving,  the  war  prisoners  said:  'Tell  the  people 
in  Russia  to  give  us  bread.'  They  also  said:  'Let  them  gather  a 
force  which  would  defend  and  protect  us  so  that  we  could  return 
home  in  good  health.'  This  desire  became  particularly  keen  when  we 
heard  that  you  were  free  and  that  a  new  order  had  been  established. 


318  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


After  a  thirty  months'  stay  in  those  cellars,  we  hear  that  you  arc 
at  ease  and  in  good  health,  and  to  our  regret  you  know  nothing  about 
what  is  going  on  over  there,  among  the  war  prisoners.  I  want  you 
to  understand  that  every  time  there  was  a  heavy  blow  struck  by  our 
soldiers  at  the  front,  we,  war  prisoners,  felt  a  certain  relief,  because 
the  German  considers  force  only.  (Enthusiastic  applause.)  The 
German  takes  into  account  the  blow  only.     (Enthusiastic  applause.) 

I  wanted  to  see  the  German  Socialists,  my  brothers  and  comrades, 
for  I  am  a  Socialist  myself,  but  let  me  tell  you  that  I  made  a  mistake. 
I  tell  you,  do  not  believe,  there  is  no  fraternity  over  there  yet. 
Brothers  are  those  who  were  kept  behind  barbed  wire,  those  who 
were  in  prison  and  like  Liebknecht,  are  still  there.  There  is  no  fra- 
ternity so  far  in  Germany.     (Vehement  applause.) 

This  is  the  message  and  the  sorrowful  request  of  your  comrades 
and  the  greetings  to  you,  free  people,  from  our  soldiers  tormented 
in  captivity."     (Applause.) 

At  the  session  of  May  23,  I.  I.  Bunakov,  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  made  a  speech,  in 
the  name  of  the  presiding  officers  of  the  Congress,  with  regard 
to  the  war.  His  speech,  expressing  undoubtedly  the  spirit  of 
the  entire  assembly,  was  enthusiastically  applauded.  The 
Congress  decided  to  print  his  speech  in  millions  of  copies  for 
distribution  in  the  Army.  A  similar  decision  was  arrived  at 
in  regard  to  Kerensky's  speech. 

Bunakov's  Speech 

"The  war  is  hanging  over  us  like  a  cloud,"  began  I.  I.  Bunakov. 
"Open  any  book  of  history,  and,  if  you  turn  all  its  leaves,  you  will 
find  no  darker  pages  than  those  of  the  history  of  our  three-year  war. 
In  two  years  about  four  and  one-half  million  men  were  lost,  eleven 
million  wounded;  of  these,  three  and  one-half  million  became  cripples 
and  invalids;  and  all,  the  flower  of  humanity,  its  young,  life-giving 
forces!  All  the  European  wars  combined  that  were  fought  be- 
tween 1790  and  1914  did  not  take  such  a  number  of  human  victims  as 
this  cursed  war.  Look  at  the  map;  it  is  all  covered  with  blood;  even 
the  few  countries  which  have  not  been  drawn  into  the  whirlpool  of 
the  war  are  also  submerged  in  blood.  I  draw  these  pictures  not  for 
the  purpose  of  frightening  you.  No  war  is  advantageous  to  the 
workers,  and  we  must  exert  all  our  efforts  to  stop  it.  If  the  toiling 
masses  do  not  want  to  drown  in  a  sea  of  blood,  they  must  stop  the 
war.   (Loud  applause.) 

Our  present  Minister  of  Post  and  Telegraph,  Tseretelli.  under 
the  old  order,  was  a  convict,  sentenced  to  hard  labor  and  deprived 
of  all   civil   and   political   rights;   the  present   Minister  of  Agriculture. 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates        319 


Chernov,  spent  ten  years  in  exile.  Not  long  ago  violence  and  law- 
lessness reigned  in  Russia;  national  discord,  scaffolds  and  execu- 
tions were  exceedingly  common.  No  other  country  in  the  world 
marches  under  the  banner  of  Socialism,  but  Russia,  the  most 
backward  of  them,  waves  the  red  banner  before  the  whole  world.  Can 
this  march  take  place  simultaneously  with  the  war?  The  fight  be- 
tween the  fire  of  the  Russian  Revolution  and  the  icy  stream  of  the 
war  is  precisely  our  Democracy's  fight.  The  whole  Russian  Revolu- 
tion is  explained  by  the  various  stages  of  the  fight  for  peace,  fight 
against  war.  At  present  there  are  Socialists  in  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment, they  are  in  a  minority,  but  they  are  backed  by  our  support 
and  influence  and  by  that  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  Right  now  your  decisive  word  is  being 
awaited.  I  can  say  beforehand  that  the  Russian  peasantry  will  not 
remain  behind  the  proletariat,  but,  having  combined  with  it,  will  fight 
for  peace  and  will  follow  the  course  taken  by  the  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 

I  suggest  that  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates 
issue  an  appeal  to  the  peasantry  the  world  over,  and  state  that  the 
peasants  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  workers  and  soldiers,  that  they 
are  fighting  for  the  land  and  that  they  summon  to  this  fight  the 
toiling  peasants  the  world  over.  We  must  also  state  that  we  want 
peace,  not  peace  at  any  price,  but  a  just  and  durable  peace.  We  want 
a  peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities." 

In  explaining  the  meaning  of  these  words,  I.  I.  Bunakov 
pointed  out  the  need  of  insisting  upon  the  restoration  of 
Serbia  and  Belgium. 

"We  must  also  demand,"  continued  Bunakov,  "that  ruined  Poland 
be  united,  according  to  her  people's  wish;  that  the  people  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  be  permitted  to  freely  state  whether  they  wish  to  remain 
with  Germany  or  to  join  France,  and  that  independence  be  given  to 
Armenia.  But  how  shall  we  obtain  a  just  peace?  I  must  admit  that 
there  is  one  way  of  obtaining  an  early  peace,  and  that  is — a  separate 
peace.   (Voices:  "No!") 

But  such  a  peace  is  unacceptable  to  peasants.  A  separate  peace  would 
kill  not  only  our  Revolution,  but  the  cause  of  the  social  revolution  the 
world  over.  A  separate  peace  is  dishonor  for  Russia  and  treason  to- 
wards the  Allies.  Therefore,  since  we  cannot  conclude  a  separate 
peace,  only  one  thing  is  left,  and  that  is — to  continue  the  war.  We 
must  start  an  offensive.  To  remain  in  the  trenches  without  moving  is  a 
separate  truce,  more  shameful  even  than  a  separate  peace.  A  sep- 
arate truce  demoralizes  the  Army  and  ruins  the  people.  This  spring, 
according  to  our  agreement  with  the  Allies,  we  should  have  begun  a 
general  offensive,  but  instead  of  that  we  concluded  a  separate  truce. 
The  Allies  saved  the  Russian  Revolution,  but  they  are  becoming  ex- 


320  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


hausted;  the  Germans,  however,  are  transferring  their  troops  from 
the  Eastern  to  the  Western  front.  This  state  of  a  separate  truce, 
in  which  our  Army  is  at  present  resting,  cannot  continue.  This  will 
ruin  the  Revolution;  some  Napoleon  will  appear  and  establish  a  dic- 
tatorship. 

Comrades!  We  are  on  the  threshold  of  a  democratic  republic. 
We  are  near  the  possession  of  our  land.  But,  if  we  allow  Germany 
to  overcome  the  Allies,  she  will  throw  herself  on  us,  after  she  is 
through  with  the  Allies  and  will  crush  our  freedom.  Let  the  Army 
and  the  peasants  be  at  ease  about  the  land,  because  at  the  head 
of  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  is  a  Socialist,  Chernov,  who  will  give 
to  no  one  else  the  land  belonging  to  the  toiling  people,  who  will 
not  permit  anybody  to  appropriate  the  land  before  the  war  is  over. 
Therefore,  when  our  Minister  of  War,  Kerensky,  speaks  of  starting 
an  offensive,  the  Russian  Army  must  support  him  with  all  its  strength, 
with  all  the  means  available.  All  our  inspiration,  all  our  will  we  must 
put  into  an  appeal  for  an  offensive.  From  here  we  should  send  our 
delegates  to  the  front,  and  urge  our  Army  to  wage  an  offensive. 
Let  the  Army  know  that  it  must  fight  and  die  for  Russia's  freedom, 
for  the  peace  of  the  whole  world  and  for  the  coming  Socialist  com- 
monwealth. 


AT  the  session  of  May  25,  the  Assistant  Minister  of  War, 
Colonel  Jakubovich,  made  the  following  speech,  ex- 
plaining- the  situation  in  the  Russian  Army  and  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Provisional  Government  regarding  the 
military  operations. 

Col.  Jakubovich's  Speech 

"I  came  here,"  said  Col.  Jakubovich,  "to  explain  what  the  Pro- 
visional Government  understands  by  the  word  'offensive.'  It  re- 
nounces all  seizures  and  indemnities.  To  do  so,  but  at  the  same 
time  not  start  an  offensive,  means  to  ruin  the  Russian  Revolution  and 
to  injure  the  cause  of  freedom  the  world  over. 

Our  opponents  have  a  very  poor  opinion  of  the  Russian  Army 
and  they  are  certain  that  the  Army  is  disorganized  and  incapable  of 
an  offensive.  The  Minister  of  War  is  well  posted  on  what  transpires 
in  the  enemy's  camp.  They  transferred  not  only  men,  but  even 
cannons.  What  will  be  the  result  of  this?  We  must  understand  that 
if  the  Allies  will  be  crushed,  Germany  will  not  fail  to  take  advantage 
of  us  also.  Therefore,  the  only  way  of  helping  the  Allies  is  an 
offensive. 

Another  question  is  how  to  start  the  offensive.  We  can  start  it 
only  when  the  Army  will  be  well  equipped  and  moved  by  a  strong, 
wholesome  war  spirit. 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates        321 


As  regards  ammunition,  the  Russian  Army  is  well  supplied.  In 
the  three  years  of  the  war  the  Russian  Army  never  had  as  much 
ammunition  as  it  has  now.  We  have  an  ample  supply  for  the  next 
six  months,  if  not  longer;  we  have  so  much  of  it  that  the  Ministry 
of  War  has  decided  to  stop  the  manufacture  of  munitions  in  many 
factories  in  order  to  allow  the  preparation  of  agricultural  machines 
to  meet  the  demand  of  the  farmers.  We  have  enough  cannons,  large 
quantities  of  machine-guns,  and  more  than  enough  shells  and  other 
articles  necessary  for  the  war. 

Especially  great  is  the  suffering  at  the  front,  due  to  lack  of 
food  supplies.  Numerous  cases  of  scurvy  have  occurred  because  of 
underfeeding.  There  is  no  fodder.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  in  many 
places  the  horses  receive  one  pound  of  oats  a  day.  Only  the  grass 
on  the  ground  will  perhaps  partly  save  the  horses.  How  shall  we 
avert  hunger  in  the  future?  The  only  way  is  to  bring  supplies  from 
the  rear.  The  Government  of  free  Russia  cannot  resort  to  the 
measures  of  the  old  regime,  and  therefore  the  Government  considers 
it  its  duty  to  demand  your  help.  Alone  it  is  helpless,  and  from  you, 
citizens,  it  demands  that  you  persuade  the  peasants  to  supply  the 
Russian  Army  with  bread  and  fodder. 

The  condition  of  the  transportation  system  is  still  worse.  Our 
soldier-comrades  are  using  the  railroads  in  a  merciless  way.  You 
know  what  disorders  are  now  taking  place  on  the  railroad  stations. 
With  rifles  in  their  hands  the  soldiers  compel  the  station  masters 
to  give  them  fast  trains.  There  was  a  case  on  one  railroad  where 
soldiers  themselves  dispatched  a  train  on  tracks  on  which  another 
train  was  approaching.  Painful  as  it  is,  I  must  say  that  we  receive 
daily  hundreds  of  telegrams  complaining  of  shocking  incidents.  On 
several  occasions  train  masters  and  railroad  employees  were  thrown 
out  of  car  windows  while  the  train  was  in  motion.  Only  yesterday 
the  Provisional  Government  decided  to  establish  special  courts  on 
railroads  and  to  put  at  their  disposal  armed  military  detachments. 
Perhaps  in  this  way  we  shall  be  able  to  put  an  end  to  these  out- 
rages. But  here  again  your  support  and  your  authoritative  voice 
are  necessary. 

Finally,  for  an  offensive,  fighters  are  needed,  for  the  Army  has 
become  smaller  in  size,  its  ranks  have  thinned;  and  no  offensive  can 
be  undertaken  with  a  reduced  army. 

I  must  state  that  at  the  front  in  some  companies  that  formerly 
contained  250  men,  there  are  now  seventy  and  in  some  only  forty  left. 
With  such  companies,  as  you  yourselves  understand,  no  offensive 
can  be  undertaken. 

At  the  same  time  there  is  an  abundance  of  man-power  in  Rus- 
sia. You  know  how  frequently  desertions  occur  in  the  Army;  but 
the  Provisional  Government  is  helpless  against  them.  Energetic 
measures  are  necessary  because  appeals  alone  can  accomplish  nothing. 


322  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


And  the  Provisional  Government  demands  your  assistance  in  its 
struggle  with  desertion.  You  must  find  measures  which  will  touch 
the  deserters  in  their  most  sensitive  spots.  Tell  us  how  to  put  an 
end  to  this  dreadful  evil  and  in  our  turn  we  shall  help  you  in  what- 
ever way  possible. 

Desertion  is  an  occurrence  which  we  cannot  help  noticing.  I  can 
give  you  no  exact  figures  right  now,  but  the  number  of  deserters 
amounts  to  several  millions.  Aside  from  the  open  deserters  among 
officers  and  soldiers,  there  are  also  about  a  million  unrecognized 
deserters.  They  hide  themselves  under  various  pretexts.  (Shouts: 
"Disgrace!    Disgrace!") 

•  This  outrage  cannot  be  brought  to  an  end.  There  are  in  the 
rear  both  soldiers  and  officers  who  have  intrenched  themselves.  I 
must  tell  you  that  yesterday  I  demanded  a  list  of  all  officers  in  the 
rear;  and  all  those  absent  from  the  front  will  be  sent  back  in  the 
next  few  days.  In  general,  the  War  Ministry  will  be  able  to  handle 
the  situation  successfully. 

What  should  be  done  with  the  soldiers  intrenched  in  the  rear? 
They  are  behind  a  double  line  of  trenches  and  the  War  Ministry 
cannot  get  hold  of  them  without  your  support  and  aid. 

I  must  call  your  attention  also  to  another  abnormal  circumstance. 
At  present  all  defend  themselves  by  generalities,  their  favorite  argu- 
ment being  that  of  personal  liberty.  As  a  result  of  this  we  have 
soldiers  who,  although  called  in  1914,  were  never  in  the  trenches. 
They  speak  well:  for  this  reason  they  succeeded  in  being  elected  to 
executive  committees  and  to  commissions  of  various  military  and 
social  organizations.  And  there,  under  the  cloak  of  freedom,  they 
have  arranged  their  affairs  to  their  satisfaction.  Is  it  impossible  to 
send  to  those  committees  equally  capable  soldiers  who  were  already 
in  the  trenches  and  had  a  taste  of  powder? 

From  everywhere  we  receive  telegrams  that  men  are  missing. 
Delegates  come  daily  to  the  Ministry  of  War  and  demand  that  sol- 
diers be  sent.  But  what  is  the  result?  Out  of  a  thousand  men  sent 
to  the  Western  front  only  150  to  250  get  there.  And  I  ask  what  can 
the  Government  do  without  you  to  put  an  end  to  this  outrage?  Other- 
disgraceful  incidents  take  place.  A  company  sent  to  the  front  made 
a  demand  like  this,  at  one  of  the  railroad  stations:  'Take  us  the  way 
we  want  to  go,  and  not  where  you  are  sending  us.'  Their  way  was 
through    Minsk,  but  they  demanded   to  be   sent  through   Kiev. 

You  see  what  is  going  on  in  the  Army.  I  am  not  prescribing  any 
remedy  for  this  incredible  evil.  Your  wisdom  will  tell  you  what 
must  be  done;  and  the  Ministry  of  War  awaits  the  voice  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  free  land,  the  voice  of  the  peasantry." 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates       323 

THE    main    resolution    adopted    by    the    Congress    dealt 
with  the  agrarian  problem.     Over  one  thousand  Dele- 
gates participated  in  the  voting.     Two  Delegates  voted 
against  it.     The  resolution  follows: 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  announces  to 
the  entire  Russian  peasantry  that  henceforth  not  only  the  final  solu- 
tion of  the  agrarian  problem  in  the  Constituent  Assembly,  but  also 
all  the  preparatory  work  to  be  done  by  the  local  and  central  Land 
Commissions  passes  into  the  hands  of  the  working  people  them- 
selves. For  this  reason  the  first,  most  important  and  most  respon- 
sible task  of  the  more  progressive  part  of  the  peasantry  is  the  organ- 
ization of  elections  to  the  volost  and  district  Zemstvos  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  Land  Commissions  in  connection  with  these  Zemstvos. 
The  work  of  these  Commissions  in  the  preparation  of  land  reforms  is 
to  be  based  on  the  following  principles:  the  transfer  of  all  lands 
now  belonging  to  the  State,  monasteries,  churches  and  private  persons 
into  the  possession  of  the  nation,  for  equitable  and  free  use  by  agri- 
cultural workers. 

Firmly  believing  in  the  growing  strength,  organization  and  in- 
telligence of  the  toiling  peasantry,  the  All-Russian  Congress  of 
Peasants'  Delegates  is  deeply  convinced  that  private  ownership  of 
land  with  its  forests,  water  power  and  mineral  resources  will  be 
abolished  by  the  Constituent  Assembly,  which  will  establish  a  fundi- 
mental  law  as  regards  the  land,  the  conditions  of  its  transfer  to  the 
workers  and  its  distribution  for  use. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  is  also  con- 
vinced that  in  all  Land  Commissions  from  that  of  the  volost  to  the 
central  or  Xational  Commission,  the  working  peasantry,  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  elective  system,  will  see  to  it  that  all  the  preparatory 
work  for  the  agrarian  reform  be  carried  out  with  the  object  of 
emancipating  the  land  from  the  bonds  of  private  property,  without 
any   compensation   to   the   former  owners. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  expects  the 
Provisional  Government  to  assist,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  free  ex- 
pression of  the  working  people's  opinion  on  the  important  problem 
of  reorganization  now  confronting  Russia,  and  to  prevent  all  at- 
tempts at  interference  with  this  work  by  persons  who  put  their  per- 
sonal and   party  interests   above  those  of  the   country. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Feasants'  Delegates  urges  the  Pro- 
visional Government  to  issue  an  absolutely  clear  and  unequivocal 
statement  which  would  show  that  on  this  question  the  Provisional 
Government  will   allow  nobody  to   oppose   the  people's  will. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  has  decided: 

( 1  I  The  necessity  of  settling  the  food  supply  crisis  and  of  a. 
successful  struggle  with  the  economic  disorder  throughout  the  coun- 


324  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy- 


try,  in  this  hour  of  an  oppressive  and  exhausting  world  war,  impera- 
tively demand  that  all  private  and  party  interests  yield  to  the  higher 
interests  of  the  whole  people  and  the  State. 

(2)  In  view  of  this,  ali  land,  without  exception,  must  be  given 
over  to  the  control  of  the  Land  Commissions;  and  they  should  work 
out  regulations  for  cultivation,  sowing,  harvesting,  hay  gathering,  etc. 

(3)  Because  of  the  drafting  for  war  service  of  an  enormous  num- 
ber of  workers  and  their  extreme  scarcity  in  the  harvest  season,  it  is 
necessary  that  all  able-bodied  workers  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  the 
above  Land  Committees  and  be  distributed  not  to  the  advantage  of 
individuals,  but  in  the  interests  of  all  the  toiling  population. 

(4)  In  view,  partly  of  the  lack  and  partly  of  the  worn-out  con- 
dition of  the  agricultural  machinery,  the  most  energetic  measures  are 
necessary  for  the  requisitioning  and  putting  to  use,  on  a  cooperative 
basis,  of  all  agricultural  machines  available  in  Russia  and  for  the 
calling  of  men  familiar  with  their  use.  Also  in  view  of  the  number 
of  peasants'  horses  requisitioned  and  the  extreme  scarcity  of  live 
farm  stock,  it  is  necessary  to  utilize  the  live  stock  to  be  found  out- 
side of  farms. 

(5)  Hay  gathering,  harvesting,  storing  of  grain,  fishing,  prepara- 
tion of  timber,  fire-wood  and  other  materials  derived  from-  forests 
must  be  put  under  the  control  of  the  Land  Commissions  or  other 
governmental  organizations,  in  order  to  prevent  individual  hoarding 
of  the  greatly  needed  supplies  or  plundering  the  natural  resources 
of  the  land. 

(6)  The  fixing  of  terms  for  leasing  land,  and  of  the  method 
of  paying  thereunder,  also  the  fixing  of  wages  for  agricultural 
workers  and  similar  questions  must  be  given  over  entirely  to  the 
local  Land  Commissions.  In  disputed  cases,  the  rent  is  to  be  kept 
in  the  local  State  treasury. 

(7)  Until  the  introduction  of  national  reforms,  the  local  Land 
Commissions  shall  be  allowed  complete  freedom  of  initiative  and 
activity;  for  this  purpose  all  restraining  control  on  the  part  of  pro- 
vincial and  district  commissaries  must  be  eliminated,  particularly  one- 
sided selection  of  their  staffs  from  among  the  land-owning  class. 

(8)  For  the  purpose  of  conserving  intact  the  land,  and  all  prop- 
erties belonging  thereto,  a  strict,  incontrovertible  order  is  necessary, 
prohibiting,  until  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  all 
buying,  selling,  mortgaging  and  inheriting  of  land;  this  order  to  be 
enforced  by  the  Land  Commissions. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  considers  that 
only  under  such  conditions  is  the  creation  of  a  new  agrarian  order 
possible,  an  order  which  would  be  worthy  of  free  Russia,  and 
which  would  unite  into  one  fraternal  family,  under  one  national  roof, 
all  toilers  of  the  land,  without  distinction  of  nationality,  religion  or 
class — the    inhabitant    of    great    Russia    and    the    inhabitant    of    the 


The  First  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates       325 

Ukraine,  the  Christian  and  the  Mohammedan,  the  peasant  and  the 
Cossack,  the  native  Russian  and  the  member  of  a  foreign  tribe;  each 
of  them  will  feel  the  beneficial  consequences  of  the  great  reform  and 
will  bless  it. 

Recognizing  this,  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Deputies 
invites  the  whole  peasantry  to  calm,  but  determined  and  steadfast 
work  for  the  realization,  in  a  legal  manner,  of  those  fond  hopes  of  the 
toiling  farmer  which  long  since  have  been  expressed  in  the  slogan 
dear  to  each  peasant,  'Land  and  Freedom.'" 

The  Congress  decided  in  favor  of  the  following  special 
appeal  to  the  population  : 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Peasants'  Delegates  appeals  to  the 
peasants  and  the  whole  wage-earning  population  of  Russia  to  vote,  at 
the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  only  for  those  candidates 
who  pledge  themselves  to  advocate  the  nationalization  of  the  land 
without  reimbursement  and  on  principles  of  equality." 


At  the  end  of  its  sittings  the  Congress  elected  an  Executive 
Committee.    The  following  were  elected: 

V.  M.  Chernov,  by  810  votes;  Ekaterina  Constantinovna 
Breshko-Breshkovskaya,  809;  A.  F.  Kerensky,  804;  N.  D. 
Avksentiev,  799;  I.  I.  Bunakov,  790;  I.  A.  Rubanovsky,  778; 
V.  N.  Figner.  776;  P.  V.  Vikhliaev,  770;  N.  N.  Sokolov,  769; 
N.  A.  Bikhovsky,  769;  N.  D.  Kondratiev,  758;  S.  S.  Maslov. 
745;  M.  A'.  Yishniak,  736;  S.  L.  Maslov,  730;  V.  A.  Kilchevski, 
729:  A'.  K.  Vol  ski,  726;  G.  Pokrovsky,  718;  V.  A.  Gurevich. 
710:  N.  V.  Tchaykovsky,  708;  G.  A.  Martiushin,  706;  A.  P. 
Gotz.  693:  I.  E.  Piyanikh,  688;  M.  E.  Berezin,  682;  N.  P. 
Oganovsky.  676;  V.  I.  Dziubinski,  675;  V.  A.  Miakstin,  650; 
A'.  M.  Nikitin.  622;  P.  A.  Sorokin,  527;  A.  E.  Teslia.  497.  and 
I.  P.  Pasekhny,  423. 

Among  the  candidates  defeated  in  the  election  were:  A.  V. 
Peshekhonov.  21;  Lenine,  20;  Skobelev.  15;  G.  V.  Plekhanov. 
14;  Maria  Spiridonova,  7;  Tseretelli,  6;  M.  Gorky,  8;  P.  V. 
Ivanov-Rasumnik,  20;  P.  A.  Kropotkin,  305,  and  others. 

According  to  party  affiliation,  the  Delegates  were  distrib- 
uted as  follows:  Socialists-Revolutionists,  537;  Social-Demo- 
crats. 103:  Xon-Partisan,  136;  People's  Socialists,  4;  Labor 
Group,  6. 


326  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

N.  D.  Avksentiev  was  unanimously  elected  Chairman  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Pea- 
sants' Delegates,  and  G.  A.  Martiushin  and  I.  I.  Bunakov 
(Fundaminski) — Vice-Chairmen. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Middle  Class  in  its  Relation  to  the  War  and  to  the 
Reconstruction  of  Russia 

X  X"  THILE  the  workingmen,  the  soldiers  and  the  peasants 
V/\/  did  not  lose  time  in  organizing  their  forces  and  ex- 
pressing their  views,  the  middle  class  had  organized 
its  own  conventions,  and  the  same  fundamental  problems  in 
Russia's  life  were  being  discussed  there,  from  another  angle. 
The  body  which  best  expressed  the  sentiments  of  the  Russian 
middle  class,  at  that  moment  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  was 
the  Duma,  which  from  time  to  time  held  its  private  sessions, 
under  the  leadership  of  M.  V.  Rodzianko.  The  sentiments  of 
the  representatives  of  the  middle  class  in  the  Army  were  ex- 
pressed at  the  All-Russian  Convention  of  Officers'  Delegates.* 
Of  the  Duma  sessions  we  must  mention  especially  the  one 
held  on  May  17,  immediately  after  the  resignation  of  P.  N. 
Miliukov  and  A.  I.  Guchkov.  The  speeches  made  by  the 
resigned  Ministers,  the  speech  that  followed,  by  A'.  A.  Makla- 
kov,  later  Ambassador  to  France,  and  the  concluding  state- 
ment by  M.  V.  Rodzianko,  we  will  quote,  in  their  most  im- 
portant parts. 

Guchkov's  Speech 

"I  am  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  rendering  my  account  to 
you,  for  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma  is  one  of  those  public 
authorities  which  vested  our  group  of  social  leaders  with  the  govern- 
mental power  so  necessary  for  the  bringing  out  of  our  country  from 
the  state  of  anarchy  in  which  it  found  itself,  after  the  overthrow  of 
the  former  Government. 

I  have  been  reproached  for  having  taken  this  step  on  my  own  re- 
sponsibility, without  warning  my  fellow-members  of  the  Government, 
and  for  having  destroyed,  in  a  way,  the  solidarity  among  the  mem- 
bers. This  was  not  the  case.  A  week  or  ten  days  before  my  resigna- 
tion, I  definitely  said  to  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  and  to  my  colleagues, 
that  under  the  conditions  affecting  the  governmental  power,  in  general, 
and  the  power  of  the  Minister  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  in  particular. 


♦During  the  two  and  a  half  years  of  war  before  the  Revolution,  almost 
all  the  trained  officers  of  the  old  school,  especially  in  the  middle  and  lower 
ranks,  had  been  killed  or  disabled.  The  new  officers  came  from  the  ranks 
of  the  "intelligentsia"  and  from  the  middle  class. 


328  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


I  found  it  impossible  to  remain,  and  that  my  further  remaining  in  the 
Cabinet,  which  almost  meant  a  prolongation  of  the  crisis,  was  in  my 
opinion  working  considerable  harm. 

On  the  evening  before  my  resignation,  at  a  meeting  at  Prince 
G.  E.  Lvov's  house,  I  repeated  that  I  was  going  to  resign,  and  in  reply 
to  the  question  as  to  when,  I  stated  that  I  would  do  so  that  evening. 
There  is  a  limit  to  solidarity  among  colleagues.  This  limit  is  reached 
when  the  individual  conscience  begins  to  speak.  And  in  that  case 
the  voice  of  the  conscience  should  be  listened  to. 

We,  representatives  of  the  Government,  may  be  compared  with 
those  pilots,  who,  tied  hand  and  foot  and  pulled  and  pushed  con- 
tinuously, are  compelled  to  steer  a  vessel  along  its  regular  course. 
It  is  obvious  that  under  such  circumstances  the  vessel  will  go  to  the 
bottom.  Under  such  conditions  the  pilot  has  a  right  to  say:  'Those 
whose  hands  are  free  should  themselves  take  the  rudder  and  steer.' 
I  was  compelled  to  resign  because  I  was  absolutely  unable  to  fulfil 
my  duty  under  the  attendant  circumstances  and  I  did  not  wish  to 
create  a  dangerous  illusion  of  the  existence  of  something  non-exist- 
ent.    I  surrendered  my  authority  simply  because  I  had  none. 

The  anarchy  which  has  entered  the  system  and  become  a  method 
of  administration,  this  anarchy  has  influenced  painfully  and  de- 
structively the  large  and  complex  body  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 

In  the  way  of  reforms,  the  new  Government  has  gone  very  far. 
Not  even  in  the  most  democratic  country  have  the  principles  of 
self-government,  freedom  and  equality  been  so  extensively  applied  in 
military  life.  We  have  gone  somewhat  farther  than  the  dangerous 
limit,  and  the  impetuous  current  drives  us  farther  still.  And  beyond 
that  begins  not  the  construction  of  the  Army  on  new  principles,  but 
the  inevitable  process  of  destruction. 

I  could  not  consent  to  this  destructive  work,  I  could  not  sign 
my  name  to  orders  and  laws,  which  in  my  opinion  would  lead  towards 
a  rapid  deterioration  of  our  military  forces.  A  country,  and  espe- 
cially an  army,  cannot  be  administered  on  the  principles  of  meetings 
and  conferences. 

Whether  the  new  Government  will  be  able  to  master  the  situa- 
tion, I  do  not  know.  Let  us  hope  it  will,  and,  in  any  case,  let  us 
assist  it.  But  I  must  express  my  fears  whether  the  fatal  destructive 
process  has  not  gone  too  far,  and  whether  we  will  be  able  to  stop  it. 
Shall  we  be  able  to  create  and  strengthen  healthy  currents,  shall  we 
be  able  to  get  rid  of  these  effluvia  which  hang  over  the  present  situa- 
tion as  over  a  putrid  swamp'  In  any  case,  we  should  not  lose  faith 
in  our  country,  as  long  as  there  is  life. 

But  we  must  admit  that  the  situation  is  dangerous  to  the  highest 
degree,  and  the  danger  is  not  only  in  our  terrible  military  situation, 
but  also  in  the  fact  that  the  poison  of  anarchism,  having  polluted  our 
governmental  power  and  having  undermined  the  vital  forces  of  our 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  329 


Army,  has  penetrated  into  all  the  pores  of  our  social  and  economic 
life  and  has  impaired  or  disorganized  all  the  functions  of  the  national 
body. 

Gentlemen,  I  prophesy  that  if  we  are  not  able  to  control  this 
destructive  process  in  the  most  important  domain,  in  that  of  the 
economic  and  social  relations,  Russia  will  rapidly  weaken  and  perish. 
To-day's  problem  is  the  creation  of  a  firm  and  constructive  govern- 
mental power. 

One  may  regard  as  one  pleases  the  governmental  combination 
now  being  formed,  one  may  sympathize  with  it  or  one  may  regard  it 
with  a  certain  melancholic  scepticism.  But,  in  any  case,  this  com- 
bination is  a  natural,  and  I  would  say,  inevitable  stage  in  that  salu- 
tory  evolution  of  strong  power  without  which  a  collapse  of  the  State 
is  inevitable. 

But,  gentlemen,  whatever  our  attitude  to  this  new  combination, 
one  thing  is  certain:  we  all  must  support,  with  all  our  power,  the 
Government  which  has  been  formed  again  after  such  a  long  and 
painful  process.  Our  duty  to  the  country  demands  that  all  support 
this  Government,  because  our  support  will  make  it  strong,  and  only 
a  strong  Government  can  save  the  country  from  the  anarchy  which, 
if  it  spreads  further,  will  bring  our  country  to  ruin."  (Prolonged  ap- 
plause.) 

A.  I.  Guchkov  was  followed  by  Prof.  Paul  N.  Miliukov,  who 
was  received  with  an  ovation. 

Miliukov's  Speech 

"My  explanations  as  to  the  immediate  causes  of  my  resignation," 
said  P.  N.  Miliukov,  "will  be  more  specific  than  those  made  by  A.  I. 
Guchkov.  As  regards  our  duty  to  the  Provisional  Government,  my 
political  friends  and  I  considered  that  we  could  not  leave  it  our- 
selves, that  only  by  force  could  we  be  compelled  to  do  so,  that  our 
own  resignation  would  be  wrong.  You  know  that  after  my  with- 
drawal, there  are  fellow  party  members  still  left  in  the  Provisional 
Government.  The  question  which  was  put  before  me  in  such  a 
decisive  manner  as  to  compel  me  to  go,  came  from  another  source. 
I  said  publicly  also  that  I  would  resign  only  if  compelled  by 
force,  and  I  could  not  foresee  that  event.  I  had  to  resign,  yielding 
not  to  force,  but  to  the  wish  of  a  considerable  majority  of  my  col- 
leagues. With  a  clear  conscience  I  can  say  that  I  did  not  leave  on 
my  own  account,  but  was  compelled  to  leave.  My  conscience  is  clear, 
I  remained  at  my  post  until  my  colleagues  said:  'Leave  the  post:  it 
is  needed  now  for  other  purposes.' 

You  could  see  for  yourselves  that  my  activity  in  foreign  politics 
was  in  accord  with  your  ideas.  (Cries:  "Correct!"  and  loud  applause.) 
This  activity  was  carried  on  in  a  manner  considered  by  you  all  as 
necessary  for  the  vital  interests  of  Russia,  in  the  present  world  strug- 


330  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


gle.  (Voices:  "Correct!")  My  opponents  kept  saying  that  together 
with  the  Revolution,  this  sharp  turn-about  in  our  domestic  life,  a 
similar  Revolution'  or  abrupt  change  should  take  place  in  our  foreign 
relations;  they  also  said  that  our  former  diplomacy  was  characteristic 
oi  the  Tzar's  regime  and  that  a  new  diplomacy  should  take  its  place 
now.  I  tried  to  explain  that  in  the  sphere  of  foreign  relations  the 
situation  differs  from  that  in  the  domestic  affairs.  My  basis  was  that 
we  had  no  diplomacy  of  the  Tzar  or  diplomacy  of  the  Provisional 
Government,  but  a  diplomacy  towards  our  Allies,  a  diplomacy  which 
guides  us  together  with  the  Allies. 

In  our  agreement  with  the  Allies  we  defined  just  what  advan- 
tages should  be  the  compensation  for  our  common  efforts  and  what 
consequences  are  necessary  for  the  vital  interests  of  each  of  us  and 
for  the  common  good. 

Thus,  there  was  no  diplomacy  of  the  Tzar,  but  a  diplomacy  of 
the  Allies,  and  we  are  bound  with  our  Allies,  whether  for  sorrow  or 
for  joy,  and  we  are  morally  obliged  to  stay  with  them  to  the  end. 

We  thought  that  this  union  of  ours  was  sealed  with  the  millions 
of  men  lost  by  all  the  Allied  countries,  and  that  it  could  not  be  re- 
nounced by  the  one-sided  decision  of  any  of  us.  This  was  the  reason 
I  thought  that  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  our  domestic  life 
only  meant  that  at  present  wTe  can  say,  with  a  clear  conscience,  openly 
and  freely,  those  things  which  formerly  were  spoken,  not  by  all,  but 
by  the  representatives  in  the  Duma. 

This  was  the  way  I  understood  my  task  and  also  the  way  our 
Allies  understood  the  attitude  of  the  new  Russian  Government  to- 
wards them.  With  the  appearance  of  your  obedient  servant  in  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  they  knew  that  Russia  would  not  fail  to 
fulfill  her  obligations  and  to  achieve  the  aims  which  she  has  put 
before  herself. 

We  were  constantly  saying  that  the  former  Government  was  un- 
able to  organize  the  country  for  victory.  This,  precisely,  was  the 
immediate  aim  of  our  participation  in  the  Revolution,  and  naturally 
we  thought  that  those  results  would  follow  for  which,  to  a  great 
extent,  this  Revolution  was  made.  This  was  the  way  I  understood 
my  task  in  foreign  politics. 

For  a  considerable  length  of  time  I  thought  that  my  foreign 
policy  was  completely  approved  by  my  fellow-members  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government. 

But  after  some  time  it  became  evident  that  another  theory  had 
been  brought  in  from  the  outside,  a  theory  based  on  the  opinion  of 
an  insignificant  minority  of  foreign  Socialists,  who,  before  the  out- 
break of  the  war,  had  decided  to  prevent  it,  and  after  the  war  began 
had  sought  to  stop  it.  According  to  these  people,  the  war  was 
started  by  capitalists,  its  aims  were  imperialistic,  the  tasks  of  the 
proletariat  were,   therefore,   to   force   their   respective  governments   to 


Underwood  &  Underwood 

PROF.  P.  N.  MILIUK<  >\ 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  First  Provisional  Government 


332  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


stop  the  war.  This  program  was  rather  difficult,  because  it  was 
adopted  abroad  by  only  a  small  minority  of  Social-Democrats.  The 
majority  of  the  Socialists  in  all  the  Allied  countries  proved  material- 
istic and  not  international,  that  is,  they  adhered  to  the  idea  of  the 
country's  defense  and  of  war  against  the  German  militarism  which 
alone  prevented  a  lasting  peace.  The  bourgeois  parties  adhered  to  this 
nationalistic  point  of  view  even  more.  And  it  seemed  that  nothing 
would  happen  in  Russia  to  change  this  general  situation. 

But  the  ideas  of  Zimmerwald  and  Kinthal*  shared  abroad  by 
a  very  small  group,  have  develnoed  into  a  powerful  current  in  our 
country,  where  they  are  responsible  for  the  made-in-Germany 
formula  brought  to  us  through  the  Swiss  Socialists  and  our  own 
exiles,  who,  upon  their  return  to  Russia,  began  an  energetic  agitation 
in  favor  of  the   Zimmerwald  ideas. 

As  a  result  of  this  a  rather  wide  circle  of  the  public,  little 
familiar  with  the  situation  abroad,  accepted  the  radical  formula  of  the 
international  minority  of  the  Socialists  of  the  West, — 'No  annexa- 
tions, no  indemnities,' — the  formula  the  acceptance  of  which  was  also 
urged  by  the  same  persons  who  thought  that  the  Congress  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates  should  have  an  influence  over  the  Gov- 
ernment in  matters  of  foreign  politics. 

Knowing  from  where  this  formula  comes  and  where  it  leads,  I 
objected  to  it  very  energetically.  Only  a  few  of  my  colleagues  sup- 
ported me,  and  I  had  to  consent  to  the  publication  of  the  statement 
of  March  27th,  which  represents  a  compromise  between  my  opinion 
and  that  of  the  majority. 

The  labor  press  in  the  meantime  was  singing  hymns  of  praise 
to  the  formula,  'No  annexations,  no  indemnities.'  I  did  not  agree; 
but  I  could  not  start  disputes  when  told  that  it  was  my  personal 
opinion  only,  whereas  this  opinion  was  really  in  accord  with  the 
tendencies  of  Russian  politics.  Another  time  came,  a  time  when 
people  began  to  insist  that  the  statement  which  I  purposely  issued  in 
the  form  of  an  appeal  to  my  fellow-citizens,  be  changed  into  a  diplo- 
matic act  and  that  our  Allies  immediately  enter  into  negotiations 
with  us  for  the  purpose  of  revising  our  treaties  in  accordance  with 
the  popular  interpretation  of  the  formula,  that  is,  'no  annexations,  no 
indemnities.' 

I  refused  categorically,  and  after  additional  negotiations,  which 
resulted  in  a  new  compromise,  I  agreed  to  send  not  a  diplomatic 
note,  but  the  statement  itself,  attached  to  a  paper  which  guaranteed 
against  misuse,  by  our  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  of  such  incorrect 
understanding  of  the  former  compromise.  That  is  to  say,  in  my  note  I 
pointed  out  very  definitely  that  we  do  not  wish  a  separate  peace,  that 
our  Army  must  be  reinforced,  etc. 

All  these  statements  proved  to  our  Allies  our  loyalty,  so  to 
speak.     This  note,  as  you  know,  provoked  the  most  intense  exaspera- 


*Zimmerwald  and  Kinthal  are  the  places  in  Switzerland  where  two 
conferences  of  the  Socialists-Internationalists  were  held  during-  this  war. 
These  "Internationalists"  do  not  entirely  share  the  p-oint  of  view  of  the 
Bolsheviki,  but  have  very  much  in  common  with   them. 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  333 


tion  against  my  person.  This  note  was  regarded  as  a  step  backward; 
a  demonstration  took  place  on  the  streets,  which,  however,  before 
the  close  of  the  day  turned  into  an  ovation  to  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  myself.     But  this  was  only  a  temporary  victory. 

The  persons  who  demanded  that  I  go  farther  in  this  direction 
and  that  I  reveal  the  nature  of  the  compromise  made  along  tbe  line 
of  the  formula,  'no  annexations,  no  indemnities,'  continued  their  fight, 
and  they  finally  decided  that  they  themselves  would  work  in  the 
direction  in  which  I  refused  to  work. 

This  suggestion  was  made  in  the  conferences  of  a  coalition 
Cabinet,  and  the  Socialist  parties,  during  the  private  negotiations  as  to 
the  composition  of  the  Cabinet,  made  it  their  first  condition  that  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  leave  his  post.  Seven  members  of  the 
Cabinet  agreed  to  that,  but  as  a  concession  they  stipulated  that  I 
remain  in  the  Ministry,  with  another  portfolio.  This  offer  was  made 
to  me,  but  I  could  not  accept  it;  you  will  understand  the  reason. 
(Applause.)  To-morrow,  probably,  the  declaration  of  the  Govern- 
ment will  be  published,  and  there  the  foreign  policies  will  be  denned 
in  a  way  in  which  I  did  not  want  to  define  them;  but,  even  if  not  I, 
but  another  person  directs  this  foreign  policy,  I  cannot  accept  the  re- 
sponsibility for  such  a  definition.  This  definition  is  harmful  and  dan- 
gerous to  Russia,  dangerous  because  it  does  not  reach  the  proposed 
aim  and  because  it  disturbs  considerably  our  relations  with  the  Allies. 
It  was  evident  to  me  that  to  exchange  the  portfolio  of  the  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs  for  that  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  still 
did  not  free  me  from  the  responsibility  for  my  foreign  policy  during 
the  war.  which  is  known  to  the  whole  world.  I  cannot  bear  this  re- 
sponsibility.    This  is  the  reason  why  I  resigned. 

In  my  explanation  I  shall  not  deal  with  my  attitude  towards  a 
coalition  Ministry.  Some  of  my  colleagues,  as  you  know,  thought  it 
necessary  to  enter  the  coalition  Ministry  and  see  whether  they  could 
not  carry  the  burden  of  government  any  longer  and  whether  they 
could,  while  remaining  in  the  Cabinet,  still  continue  their  previous 
work.  Personally  I  think  that  the  formation  of  this  Cabinet  is  a  very 
desperate  effort,  which  may  even  prove  hazardous.  But  undoubtedly 
two  very  definite  aims  have  been  achieved.  The  organization  of  a 
coalition  Ministry  increases  the  power  of  the  Government  and  makes 
possible  the  formation  of  a  united  Provisional  Government. 

Let  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  have 
their  representatives  in  the  Government,  let  them  become  responsible 
for  the  conduct  of  affairs,  but  let  this  Government  become  united. 
This  is  the  first  aim. 

Will  it  lie  reached?  I  do  not  know,  for  there  is  discord  in  the 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  itself.  You  know- 
that  not  all  agreed  upon  entering  the  coalition  Government.  And  it 
is   evident  that  those  who   did  not   enter   the   Government   will   con- 


334  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

tinue  to  criticise  those  who  have  entered,  and  it  is  possible  that  the 
Socialists  who  entered  the  Cabinet  will  find  themselves  confronted 
with  the  same  storm  of  criticism  as  did  the  Government  prior  to  the 
entry  of  the  Socialists.  But,  in  any  case,  right  now  we  shall  un- 
doubtedly have  a  stronger  Government. 

Perhaps  still  more  important  is  another  aim,  that  is,  to  change 
the  spirit  of  the  Army,  which  interpreted  all  these  pacifist  tenden- 
cies and  appeals  as  being  equivalent  to  an  actual  truce,  making  it, 
therefore,  unnecessary  to  fight.  The  Army  apparently  decided 
that  since  we  renounced  territorial  acquisitions,  there  is  no  reason  to 
fight.  It  was  impossible  to  change  this  attitude  during  the  first  Gov- 
ernment, in  which  the  soldiers  did  not  have  sufficient  confidence.  On 
the  contrary,  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  enjoys 
the  full  confidence  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  soldiers,  and  when  we 
were  asked  to  suggest  a  way  of  making  the  soldiers  understand  that 
even  the  task  of  defense  is  not  limited  to  defense  in  a  narrow  sense, 
but  also  includes  offensive  action,  we  replied:  'Ask  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  to  issue  an  appeal  to  that  effect 
and  the  soldiers  will  accept  it  with  confidence.'  Naturally,  a  Ministry 
comprising  representatives  of  parties  supported  by  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'   Delegates  can   achieve  this   aim. 

In  spite  of  the  cautious  attitude  towards  war  maintained  by  the 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  to-morrow's  declara- 
tion will  state  that  offensive  action  may  be  resumed,  that  Russia's 
defeat  would  be  dangerous  for  the  Revolution  itself,  that  the  war 
must  be  continued,  even  if  its  aims  are  as  narrow  and  limited  as  those 
formulated  by  the  successful  movement.  For  the  present  moment 
this  is   the   most  important  thing  to   be  achieved. 

No  matter  what  beautiful  pronouncements  of  friendship  we  ad- 
dress to  our  Allies,  if  our  Army  remains  inactive,  we  shall  be  consid- 
ered as  traitors;  on  the  other  hand,  no  matter  what  terrible  statements 
we  make,  betraying  our  lack  of  loyalty,  if  our  Army  is  really  fighting, 
we  are  in  fact  fulfilling  our  obligations  to  our  Allies.  This  justifies 
the  creation  of  a  coalition  Cabinet. 

In  this  way  I  consider,  in  general,  that  the  formation  of  a 
coalition  Cabinet  is  a  positive  act,  that  in  any  case  it  will  allow  us 
to  hope  for  the  achievement  of  the  two  most  important  aims  of  the 
present  time,  namely,  the  strengthening  of  the  Government  and  the 
raising  of  the  Army's  spirit.  And,  in  so  far  as  these  aims  will  be 
achieved,  we  must  support  the  newly-formed  Provisional  Govern- 
ment." 

Miliukov's  speech  was  followed  by  prolonged  applause.  The 
following  speech,  by  V.  A.  Maklakov,  later  Ambassador  to 
France,  was  listened  to.  throughout,  with  undivided  attention. 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  335 


Maklakov's  Speech 

"It  seems  to  me  that  our  situation  is  so  clear,  the  diagnosis 
made  is  so  incontestable  and  even  the  methods  of  treatment  offered 
us  are  so  certain,  that  there  is  almost  nothing  left  for  us  to  discuss. 
The  situation  is,  of  course,  very  tragic.  But,  gentlemen,  in  what- 
ever form  we  put  the  basic  thought,  whether  we  repeat  Kerensky's 
words,  paraphrasing  the  old  words  of  I.  Aksakov,  who  once  exclaimed 
in  sorrow:  'You  are  not  children  of  freedom,  you  are  slaves  in 
rebellion!'  whether  we  use  the  diplomatic  language  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  which  said  that  existing  social  relations  are 
destroyed  more  rapidly  than  new  ones  are  established, — no  matter 
what  language  we  use.  one  principal  thought  underlies  all  our  words, 
and  that  is,  that  Russia  has  shown  herself  unworthy  of  the  freedom 
she  has  gained!   (Voices:  "Right!") 

This  will  be  said  about  us  if  the  threatened  proves  true;  because, 
though  we  may  analyze  single  mistakes  made  by  various  classes, 
parties,  individuals,  though  we  may  say  that  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment has  shown  too  little  power  and  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  too  much  of  it,  though  we  may  bitterly  lament, 
as  I  do.  the  Provisional  Government's  failure  to  understand,  at  the 
proper  time,  the  valuable  support  it  could  have  had  from  the  Duma, 
though  we  may  say  that  the  Provisional  Government  did  not  under- 
stand the  significance  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Duma  ' and  of  the 
substitution  for  it  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates, though  we  rebuke  some  of  those  who  have  spoken,  and  still 
more  many  of  those  who  remained  silent,  we  shall  not  get  along  in 
Russia  either  without  the  bourgeoisie,  or  without  the  proletariat. 
Everything  will  be  taken  into  consideration,  and  the  final  verdict  may 
be  this:  On  the  day  of  the  Revolution  Russia  received  more  freedom 
than  she  could  stand,  and  Russia  was  ruined  by  the  Revolution. 
This  is  what  people  may  say,  and  when  they  will  curse  the  Revolution, 
they  will  also  curse  those  who  brought  it  about.  And  it  is  up  to  us 
to  prevent  our  being  cursed  that  way,  because  after  all,  the  members 
of  the   National   Duma   are   connected  with  the   Revolution. 

The  thought  that  Russia  may  prove  unworthy  of  the  freedom 
she  obtained  made  Kerensky  regret  that  he  had  not  died  earlier: 
for  others,  however,  this  thought  will  not  be  a  disappointment,  but  a 
confirmation  of  their  earlier  bitter  apprehensions. 

Gentlemen,  I  want  to  tell  the  whole  truth.  We,  of  the  National 
Duma,  were  more  than  once  accused  from  the  benches  of  the  left  of 
not  wanting  any  Revolution.  Yes,  this  was  true.  We  wanted  no 
Revolution  during  the  war.  We  feared  that  this  task  of  changing 
the  governmental  and  social  conditions*  and  of  simultaneously  bring- 
ing the  war  to  a  successful  conclusion  was  beyond  the  powers  of 
any  people.     But  a  time  came  when  all   realized  the  impossibility  of 


336  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


bringing  the  war  to  a  victorious  end  under  the  old  order,  and  those 
who  believed  that  Revolution  would  be  a  disaster,  decided  that  it 
was  their  duty  and  their  purpose  to  save  Russia  from  a  Revolution 
from  below  by  bringing  about  an  overthrowal  from  above.  This  task 
was  confronting  us,  but  we  failed  to  perform  it,  and  if  posterity  will 
curse  the  Revolution,  it  will  also  curse  those  who  failed  to  understand 
the  means  by  which  it  could  have  been  prevented. 

But  the  Revolution  came  from  below;  the  people  received  a  full 
measure  of  all  kinds  of  liberties.  There  was  never  a  country  where 
this  was  not  accompanied  by  excesses,  there  was  never  a  time  when 
Revolution  was  born  painlessly.  It  is  too  late  now  to  lament;  we 
must  look  for  means  of  getting  rid  of  the  excesses  and  of  preventing 
their  further  occurrence.  We  see  a  mass  of  bad  instincts  come  to 
light;  we  see  reluctance  to  work,  unwillingness  to  recognize  one's 
duty  to  the  country;  we  see  that  during  this  atrocious  war  our  coun- 
try is  engaging  in  festivities,  meetings  and  discussions,  that  the  country 
is  renouncing  the  Government  and  unwilling  to  obey  it.  I  speak  of 
Russia  as  a  whole,  of  all  its  component  parts.  What  is  there  to  be 
done?  What  will  happen  if  these  forces  prove  stronger  than  a  whole- 
some Government?  It  is  clear  that  no  Government  will  then  with- 
stand them.  The  Government  which  will  not  show  too  much  indul- 
gence to  their  instincts  will  be  overthrown  by  these  huge  forces;  the 
Government  will  go  more  and  more  to  the  left,  while  the  country 
will  turn  to  the  right.  The  country  will  be  faced  by  the  spectre  and 
horror  of  anarchy,  the  horror  of  national  disgrace,  and  those  leaders 
who  will  fail  to  understand  this  will  regard  it  as  a  counter-revolution 
and  they  will  combat  it  as  cruelly  and  mercilessly  as  the  old  power 
formerly  fought  us. 

The  Government  turns  more  and  more  to  the  left,  while  the 
country  goes  to  the  right,  and  the  Government  will  be  left  without 
the  country's  support  and  it  will  collapse  like  the  old  regime  on  the 
day  when  the  historic  Nemesis  comes.  This  will  happen,  if  the  peo- 
ple, that  Russian  people  which  has  developed  the  Russian  State,  will 
fail  to  foresee  where  it  is  being  dragged,  will  fail  to  see  the  precipice 
which  it  is  approaching,  will  be  unable  to  prefer  the  harsh  truth  to 
flattery  and  servility,  will  be  unable,  despite  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  to  stop  even  though  at  the  verge  of  the  precipice.  If 
Russia  stops  there,  she  is  a  great  Russia  worthy  of  freedom;  if  she 
tumbles  over,  the  people  will  get  their  desserts. 

However,  the  attitudes  of  various  people  towards  this  experiment 
differ.  Some  look  with  horror  at  the  course  Russia  is  about  to 
take,  and  in  silence  stand  aside  waiting  for  everything  to  be  over; 
others,  perhaps,  are  rejoicing  at  the  country's  misfortune.  Even 
among  the  members  of  the  parties  of  the  right  there  are  now  some 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  337 


who  favor  defeat,  saying  that  Russia's  defeat  would  be  her  salvation. 
But  we,  of  the  National  Duma,  cannot  take  a  position  like  that.  We 
are  told  from  the  left:  'The  Revolution  was  brought  about  not  by 
the  bourgeoisie,  but  by  the  soldiers  and  the  proletariat.'  Gentlemen, 
in  an  instant  of  joy  and  pride  they  can  deny  us  the  honor  of  bringing 
about  the  Revolution,  but  they  cannot  deprive  us  of  the  responsibility 
we  feel  for  it.  If  on  February  27  the  National  Duma  had  not  risen 
against  the  Government,  the  Revolution  would  not  have  lived  until 
evening.  The  Duma  understood  on  that  day  that  her  participation 
in  the  movement  was  a  quesron  of  honor.  The  Duma  knew  that  she 
was  taking  the  course  leading  towards  Revolution,  and,  in  the  name 
of  patriotism  and  the  salvation  of  Russia,  she  overthrew  the  old 
power.  She  knew  that  it  was  with  confidence  in  her  that  the  soldiers 
came  to  the  Taurida  Palace,  she  had  to  understand  that  if  an  attack 
on    the    soldiers   had    followed,    the    guilt   would    have    fallen    on    our 

heads. 

• 

We  had  to  venture  this  last  stake;  we  understood  that  if  the 
Revolution  failed,  we  would  perish  together  with  the  soldiers,  and  if 
it  succeeded,  it  would  be  our  common  achievement.  This  is  why  the 
National  Duma  cannot  renounce  her  offspring,  and  her  aim  is  to 
remain  with  it  until  the  last  possible  moment,  to  remain  with  the 
new  order  until  the  new  order  turns  against  her.  It  may  turn  against 
us,  it  may  crush  us,  but  we  will  remain  with  it  as  long  as  we  can 
believe  that  it  serves  Russia.  We  have  seen  here  that  some  of  our 
fellow-Ministers  considered  it  their  duty  to  withdraw  from  the  Gov- 
ernment. I  say  that  they  were  right,  and  I  shall  say  nothing  more 
about  it.  But  there  is  another  question  before  us,  and  that  is.  can 
we  desert  this  Government?  Can  we  turn  our  backs  to  it  and  main- 
tain a  position  of  neutrality?" 

"Of  course,  not,"  remarked  the  Chairman,  M.  V.  Rodzianko. 

"I  am  glad  that  the  retiring  Ministers  have  themselves  called  us 
to  assist  the  Government,  I  am  glad  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion 
on  that  and  that  we  all  can  say  to  this  Government:  'You  have  taken 
up  a  heavy  burden;  whether  you  will  be  successful  or  not,  we  do  not 
know,  but  we  will  remain  with  you  as  long  as  you  carry  this  burden.' 
Among  the  problems  confronting  the  Government  and  awaiting 
solution,  there  are  two  of  equal  importance.  In  the  first  place,  the 
Government  should  free  us  from  the  disgrace  of  our  failure  to  con- 
tinue the  war  while  still  in  alliance  with  the  other  countries,  and  of 
our  almost  treacherous  forsaking  of  those  who  helped  us  in  difficult 
times;  we  must  carry  on  the  war  and  not  discuss  conditions  of  peace. 
And  at  present  our  only  duty,  evasion  of  which  will  make  us  ashamed 
to  face  the  people  abroad,  our  duty  is  to  fight,  and  when  all  the  forces 
have  been  transferred  to  the  Western  Front,  our  duty  is  to  start  an 
offensive.   (Enthusiastic  applause.)  That  is  what  we  should  do 


338  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


And  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  Government  understands  this 
fully;  it  has  for  its  object  to  prepare  the  Army  for  an  offensive,  and 
considers  it  its  duty  to  move  the  Army  forward.  And  as  long  as 
the  Government  has  not  given  up  this  thought,  I  shall  not  argue 
with  it  about  terms  of  peace.  I  shall  not  emphasize  the  differences 
of  opinion  which  may  arise  in  our  definition  of  war  aims.  I  shall  say 
to  our  people  and  to  the  Allies:  'We  have  gone  forward;  we  are  not 
slackers,  not  deserters;  we  fight  by  your  side.'  A  Government  doing 
so   is   fulfilling  its   most   important   duty. 

The  second  problem,  gentlemen,  is  this:  In  order  to  enable  the 
Army  to  fight  and  to  start  an  offensive,  the  country  must  have  order. 
As  long  as  there  is  no  Government  and  no  order,  only  disintegration 
can  result. 

There  has  been  no  authority  until  now;  I  shall  not  discuss  the 
causes  of  it,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  there  has  not  been  any,  for  there 
is  no  authority  as  long  as  acts  of  lawlessness  are  committed,  acts 
which  were  not  dreamed  of  under  the  former  regime,  and  as  long  as 
wholesale  robberies  and  plunder  pass  under  the  protection  of  an- 
archism. But  the  new  Government  has  promised  us  to  establish 
authority. 

The  salvation  of  the  international  honor  of  Russia  and  the  salva- 
tion of  Russia  as  a  State  comprise  the  whole  program  of  the  present; 
in  this  consists  the  duty  of  the  Government,  and  this  also  is  our 
demand. 

And,  therefore,  gentlemen,  I  say  that  the  diagnosis  is  evident, 
and  so  are  the  methods  of  treatment.  It  is  clear  that  the  Govern- 
ment cannot  put  before  itself  any  other  program;  it  is  also  clear  that 
we  can  have  no  other  policy,  except  all  possible  assistance  to  the 
Government,  both  as  individuals  and  as  members  of  the  Duma  as  a 
whole.  It  is  also  certain  that  if  Russia's  salvation  is  possible, 
this  will  be  our  last  stake.  But,  if  in  spite  of  the  support  received 
from  all  sides,  this  reconstructed  Government,  representing  the  whole 
people,  will  still  fail  to  save  Russia,  if  even  then  Wilhelm  crushes  us, 
and  the  soldiers,  in  obedience  to  Lenine,  fall  back,  if  even  then 
anarchy  will  continue  to  destroy  everything, — then,  gentlemen,  no 
matter  what  language  we  use,  no  matter  where  we  try  to  place  the 
guilt,  no  matter  how  each  one  of  us  tries  to  exonerate  himself,  pos- 
terity will  curse  our  time,  our  Revolution  and  all  those  associated 
with  it.     (Loud  applause.) 

We  know,  and  so  does  everybody  else,  the  price  of  the  final 
stake  on  Russia.  This  is  known  to  everybody  to  whom  Russia  is 
dear.  As  to  those  to  whom  Russia  is  not  so  dear,  let  them  also 
know  the  price  of  the  stake  on  the  Revolution,  for  when  this  stake 
is  laid  the  fate  of  both  Russia  and  the  Revolution  is  decided. 

Beware  that  a  time  will  ever  come  when  there  will  be  in  the 
mind  of  ever}rone  another  issue:  'For  the  Revolution  or  for  Russia?' 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  339 


When  it  will  be  impossible  to  say  that  the  Revolution  smashed  the 
throne  to  save  Russia,  when  the  Revolution  will  have  betrayed  us 
abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  when  there  will  be  the  possibility  of  such 
a  sacrilegious  issue,  do  any  of  you  think  that  the  people  will  say: 
*\Ve  are  for  the  Revolution  and  against  Russia'?  (Shouts:  "Never!") 
Yes,  then  the  movement  'for  Russia'  will  rise  and  nothing  will  remain 
of  the  Revolution! 

Gentlemen,  the  Government  knows  what  it  has  at  stake.  We 
know  that  also.  Let  the  Russian  people  also  know  that  this  is  the 
final  stake.  But  if  anyone  will  interfere  with  this  work,  because  he 
continues  propaganda  transported  from  Germany,  or  because  he  puts 
party  considerations  above  the  national  cause,  we  will  let  him  know 
that  he  is  a  traitor  and  that  we  shall  regard  him  as  such!"  (Loud 
applause  and  shouts  of  "Bravo!") 

After  the  last  speaker.  M.  Y.  Rodzianko  made  the  following 
statement  to  the  members  of  the  Duma : 

"Some  time  ago  I  predicted  that  at  some  future  time  the  private 
sessions  of  the  Duma  would  become  a  prime  necessity  for  the  coun- 
try. I  think  that  this  time  has  come  now.  The  alarming  and  dan- 
gerous situation  of  the  country  has  been  sufficiently  well  denned 
here.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  the  beautiful  words  that  have  been 
said  here;  I  think  that  by  continuing  periodically  our  meetings  and 
by  discussing  the  situation,  even  though  in  this  private  way,  we  shall 
succeed  in  letting  the  people  hear  from  the  clear-headed  Russian 
Parliament  words  of  truth,  warning  and  advice  as  to  how  to  steer  the 
vessel  of  State,  the  dangers  threatening  it  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  can  be  prevented.  I  am  convinced  that  you  join  unreservedly 
in  the  appeal  to  support  the  new  Government."     (Loud  applause.) 

The  following  resolution  was  introduced  and  unanimously 
adopted : 

"The  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  National  Duma  urgently 
reminds  the  Provisional  Government,  at  the  time  of  its  reconstruc- 
tion, that  the  foreign  policy  regarding  war  and  peace  should  be,  as 
heretofore,  based  on  unconditional  and  unswerving  loyalty  to  our 
valiant  Allies,  because  with  this  loyalty  are  inseparably  bound  both 
Russia's  vital  interests  and  her  honor." 


THE  All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates  opened 
on  May  28,  1917.    The  first  speech  was  made  by  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel    Gushchin,    of   the    General    Staff,    who 
greeted  the  Congress  in  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Council  of  Officers'  Delegates. 


340  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Gushchin's  Speech 

"We  understand  the  responsibility  assumed  by  the  Executive 
Committee  in  calling  you  all  to  express  yourselves  upon  the  ques- 
tions which  have  caused  you  so  much  pain.  You  have  been  invited 
to  Petrograd  not  by  your  superior  officers'  order, — from  this  we 
are  free  forever, — but  by  a  definite  organization  of  Officers'  Delegates 
in  Petrograd,  which  was  formed  in  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Revolution,  out  of  the  chaos  of  that  time,  and  which,  even  before 
the  former  Tzar's  resignation,  considered  the  Provisional  Committee 
of  the  Duma  the  sole  governmental  authority.  The  officers  of 
Petrograd  aim  at  union  with  the  soldiers,  in  whom  they  want  to 
see  their  younger  comrades;  nor  have  they  inscribed  on  their 
banner  separation  of  the  soldiers  from  the  workingmen.  In  the  very 
beginning  of  our  work,  we  met  with  some  distrust,  which,  however, 
we  tried  to  overcome  by  our  union  with  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  We,  officers,  are  a  part  of  the  people; 
but.  at  the  same  time,  we  are  a  separate  organization  called  to 
defend  Russia  and  to  guide  our  soldier-brothers.  In  New  Russia 
even  the  discipline,  which  is  the  Army's  foundation,  must  be  based 
on  new,  sensible  principles.  Nothing  can  separate  the  Russian 
officer  from  the  soldier. 

We  are  one  united  family  of  soldiers  and  we  have  now  one  single 
purpose — victory  over  the  foreign  enemy.  In  the  name  of  free  Rus- 
sia, we  must  gain  victory,  for  the  Fatherland  will  not  forgive  us  the 
disgrace  of  defeat." 

Unanimous  applause  followed  this  speech.  U.  M.  Steklov 
greeted  the  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates  in  the  name  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 

Steklov's  Speech 

"The  time  has  come,"  began  U.  M.  Steklov,  "when  every  son  of 
Russia  must  define  himself  politically  and  apply  all  his  efforts  to  the 
strengthening  of  the  foundations  of  Russia's  citizenship.  At  present, 
more  than  ever,  are  appropriate  the  words  of  the  poet  who  said:  'Not 
every  one  needs  to  be  a  poet,  but  every  one  is  obliged  to  be  a  citizen." 

The  Russian  officers  must  also  state  their  attitude  towards  the 
present  moment,  because  they  are  an  organization  which  has  played 
and  is  at  present  playing  an  important  part  in  the  country's  life  and 
through  whose  hands  pass  millions  of  lives  in  the  bloom  of  youth. 
The  Russian  officers  are  affected,  not  less  than  other  citizens,  by  the 
general  shake-up.  The  officers,  as  a  whole,  are  a  healthy  body  and 
have  rendered  many  great  services  to  the  Revolutionary  Movement. 
From  officers'  families  came  the  Decembrists,  who  in  the  period  of 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  341 


slavery  did  not  fear  to  raise  the  banner  of  freedom  and  to  lay  down 
their  lives  for  the  highest  ideals  of  humanity.  The  number  of  officers 
who  were  martyrs  for  freedom  constantly  increased  in  the  years  fol- 
lowing the  emancipation  movement,  and  only  the  period  of  reaction, 
the  period  of  Alexander  III  and  Nicholas  II,  put  the  officers  also 
under  restraint.  The  Russian  officers  have  suffered,  and  now,  more 
than  ever  before,  have  they  the  right  to  curse  the  old  regime,  which 
roused  public  sentiment  against  them.  (Applause.)  When  individua-1 
representatives  of  your  class  stained  their  uniforms  by  participation 
in  punitive  expeditions,  you,  Russian  officers,  suffered  in  silence,  and 
you  never  acknowledged  in  your  midst  the  uniform  of  a  gendarme. 
(Enthusiastic  applause.) 

Now  you  must  take  a  decided  stand.  The  time  when  tyranny 
could  utilize  officers  for  the  suppression  of  the  people's  struggle  has 
passed  forever,  and  now,  even  if  there  should  appear  a  madman  who 
would  try  to  repeat  the  events  of  1905-1906,  you  must  declare  de- 
cisively that  you  are  citizens  of  a  great  country  and  servants  of  a 
great  people." 

The  next  speaker  was  S.  I.  Shidlovsky.  When  he  appeared 
as  the  representative  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma, 
all  the  members  of  the  Congress  rose  and  greeted  him  with 
prolonged  applause. 

Shidlovsky's  Speech 

"There  are  times  in  the  history  of  a  people  that  give  birth  to  a 
watchword  uniting  all  the  people,  times  when  the  attention  must  not  be 
divided  and  when  all  efforts  of  the  people  must  be  directed  towards 
one  point.  As  such  a  point  we  must  now  consider  the  foreign  enemy 
confronting  our  Army.  This  is  the  only  place  where  we  can  see 
danger  to  the  new  order. 

I  appeal  to  you  for  unity,  and  I  am  sure  that  the  new  freedom 
is  not  menaced  by  any  lurking  danger  and  you  can  face  it  squarely. 
(Applause.) 

The  task  confronting  us  will  be  more  difficult  than  those  we 
have  already  performed.  Victory  over  the  old  order  was  compara- 
tively easy,  because  Tzarism  had  no  defenders.  Now  there  are  before 
you  problems  of  construction,  complicated  by  the  great  war,  which 
must  restore  an  order  under  which  life  can  be  rebuilt  in  all  countries 
on  the  basis  of  universal  peace.  You  are  fighting  not  Wilhelm,  but 
the  conditions  excluding  the  possibility  of  this  peaceful  existence. 
My  final  plea  to  you  is:  Be  firm  and  united  and  build  the  future  with 
a  clear  understanding  of  our  problems;  also,  try  to  unite  the  Army 
for  the  defense  of  high  ideals,  this  defense  to  be  conducted  only  in  a 
way  befitting  a  free  and  confident  people." 


342  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

After  these  speeches  came  the  greetings  to  the  Congress 
by  the  representatives  of  the  Allied  nations.  Among  others, 
the  American  Ambassador  in  Petrograd,  David  R.  Francis, 
and  a  member  of  the  Belgian  Cabinet,  Emile  Yandervelde, 
spoke. 

A  deep  impression  was  made  by  the  delegation  from  the 
Black  Sea  Fleet.  Two  sailors,  Agnieev  and  Batkin,  spoke 
in  the  name  of  the  sailors,  workingmen  and  soldiers  of  the 
Sebastapol  Garrison.  Agnieev  welcomed  the  officers  of  the 
Russian  Revolutionary  Army  "who  defend  now  not  the  dy- 
nasty, not  His  Majesty,  Nicholas  II,  but  Her  Majesty,  the 
Russian  Revolution." 

Sailor  Batkin  spoke  with  a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm  and 
passion.  He  called  the  officers  to  union  with  the  soldiers  and 
said  that  "when  this  will  have  been  achieved,  Russian  freedom, 
which  only  a  week  ago  was  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  will  be 
definitely  won."  "The  war,"  said  Batkin,  "is  equally  superfluous 
to  you  officers  and  to  us  soldiers.  But  just  now,  when  little, 
blood-covered  Belgium,  which  gave  France  the  possibility  of 
preparing  and  us  the  opportunity  of  making  the  Revolution, 
listens,  trembling,  to  your  decision, — you,  bound  by  your 
awakened  conscience,  must  announce  to  her  and  to  all  the 
Allies,  that  everyone  who  sheds  his  blood  together  with  you 
is  your  friend  and  that  you  will  not  forsake  your  friends  in 
difficulty.  This  is  a  time  not  for  words,  but  for  acts,  and  you 
must  return  and  announce  to  the  Army  that  there  can  be  no 
traitors  in  the  Russian  Army  and  that  those  who  fraternize 
with  the  enemy  at  a  time  when  the  blood  of  the  French  and 
English  is  being  shed,  are  traitors." 

The  members  of  the  Congress  rose  and  for  a  long  time 
applauded  this  speech. 

The  program  for  the  day  was  completed  when  the  Minister 
of  War,  A.  F.  Kerensky,  appeared  in  the  hall.     The  Congress 
remained  standing  during  the  Minister's  speech. 
Kerensky's  Speech 

"Comrades,  I  thank  you  for  the  honor,"  began  A.  F.  Kerensky, 
"which  I  regard  as  your  desire  to  emphasize  your  solidarity  with 
the   Russian   Revolution,  and   I   greet  in  you,   the   Russian   Army.     I 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  343 


have  accepted  the  burdensome,  but  at  the  same  time  highly  honorable, 
task  of  the  leadership  of  the  country's  armed  forces.  I  need  your 
support  in  order  to  follow  the  course  pointed  out  to  us  by  the  free, 
revolutionary  people.  I  came  from  circles  which  are  strange  to  you; 
I  never  wore  a  military  uniform,  but  I  have  also  been  through  the 
school  of  iron  discipline,  in  the  revolutionary  parties,  the  members 
of  which,  like  you,  swore  either  to  conquer  or  to  die  for  the  Father- 
land's freedom.  In  our  ranks  we  had  our  kind  of  officers  and  soldiers; 
but  we  were  all  equal,  and  the  officers'  only  privilege  was  double  work 
and  double  responsibility.  Now  the  army  of  slaves,  subjected  by  the 
old  regime,  has  become  an  army  of  free  sons  of  a  free  country,  and 
there  should  be  no  one  in  that  army  deprived  of  political  rights. 

I  have  come  to  you  to  express  my  conviction  that  you,  comrades, 
officers,  will  raise  to  the  height  due  them  those  traditions  which 
have  been  present  in  the  Russian  Army  since  the  time  of  the  Decem- 
brists. I  respect  you  all,  equally,  and  T  know  the  burden  of  the  heri- 
tage you  received  from  the  past  and  which  tortures  your  souls.  But 
you  must,  with  an  open,  free  mind,  go  to  your  younger  comrades  and 
bring  them  into  your  midst,  as  equals.  Down  with  doubts,  distrust  and 
despondency!  I  shall  insistently  demand,  backed  by  the  whole  power 
of  the  revolutionary  people,  obedience  to  discipline  based  on  con- 
science, duty  and  truth.  This  will  make  the  Army  a  force  before 
which  all  will  bow  and  which  all  will  fear.  (Vehement  applause.) 

The  purpose  of  your  Congress  I  understood  to  be  your  desire  to 
extend  your  hands  to  your  friend  and  brother — the  soldier.  I  am 
sure  that  the  burden  which  I  have  assumed  will  seem  to  me  light  and 
joyous  and  that  the  beautiful  day  of  the  birth  of  the  Revolutionary 
Army  will  come,  an  Army  which  will  give  up  its  life  for  freedom,  equal- 
itv   and   fraternity." 


The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates  adopted 
the  following  resolution  regarding  the  war : 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates,  while  welcoming 
the  Provisional  Government's  efforts  for  a  lasting  peace  and  brother- 
hood, recognizes  that: 

(\)  Any  retardation  in  the  work  of  restoring  the  Army's  and  Navy's 
fighting  capacity  may  result  in  the  ruin  of  free  Russia,  because  it  will 
allow  Germany  to  beat  our  faithful  Allies,  after  which  a  humiliating 
peace  will  be  forced  upon  us. 

(2)  The  time  for  words  has  passed,  and  action  is  necessary  in 
order  to  compel  the  German  Government  to  accept  the  wish  of  the 
Russian  people — peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities,  based  on 
the  principle  of  self-determination  of  peoples. 

(3)  Offensive  action  is  necessary  on  the  front,  as  the  only  guaranty 
of  success. 


344  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


(4)  The  whole  Russian  people  must  unite  in  a  powerful  effort  to 
compel  Germany  to  accept  its  wish." 

With  regard  to  the  internal  conditions  of  the  Army,  the 
Congress  adopted  the  following  resolution : 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates  from  the  Army 
and  Navy  has  come  to  the  following  conclusions.  Owing  to  deep 
causes  rooted  in  the  conditions  of  life  of  the  pre-revolutionary 
period  and  to  the  inevitable  shocks  of  the  stormy  course  of  the 
great  Russian  Revolution,  the  Army  has  been  brought  into  a  state  of 
painful  disorganization,  which  has  affected  those  essential  parts  of  its 
foundation  without  which  no  army  can  exist.  This  disorganization 
is  manifest  in  the  following  circumstances: 

(1)  Complete  decline  of  the  superior  officer's  authority,  manifest 
not  only  in  his  uncertainty  as  to  whether  his  orders  will  be  carried 
out,  but  even  in  direct  failure  to  carry  them  out,  including  orders  on 
the  battlefield;  the  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  miltary  committees  to 
bring  under  their  jurisdiction,  merely  by  their  own  declaration,  the 
questions  of  Army  administration  and  even  those  of  operation;  the 
efforts  to  put  into  practice  the  principle  of  election  of  superiors. 

(2)  On  the  one  hand,  complete  absence  of  confidence  on  the  part 
of  soldiers  in  the  officers,  who,  as  a  whole,  are  suspected  of  disloyalty 
during  the  revolutionary  struggle;  on  the  other  hand,  a  cetrain  con- 
fusion among  the  officers  themselves  in  these  difficult,  almost  tragic 
conditions  of  the  transitional  period:  lack  of  self-assurance,  inability 
to  decide  on  a  line  of  conduct  and  lack  of  desire  for  energetic,  un- 
daunted work  on  new  principles. 

(3)  Frequent  cases  of  complete  unfitness  of  persons  of  both 
higher  and  lower  ranks  for  the  position  occupied. 

(4)  Absence  of  a  lofty  military  spirit,  evident  in  the  irresistible 
and  frank  longing  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  for  peace,  often  peace 
at  any  price;  wholesale  desertion,  especially  in  the  rear  divisions; 
the  shameful  fact  of  fraternizing  which  has  brought  about  a  state  of 
actual  truce  in  some  sectors  at  the  front. 

(5)  Absence  of  cooperation  between  front  and  rear,  demon- 
strated in  the  complete  failure  on  the  part  of  the  rear  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  front. 

(6)  The  worst  possible  disorganization  in  the  food  and  fodder 
supply  system,  which  is  destroying  the  Army's  horse-power. 

The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates  from  the  Army 
and  Navy  fervently  appeals  to  the  officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy  for 
the  good  of  revolutionary  Russia  to  forget  their  fatigue,  to  forget 
their  sad  personal  experiences  and  offenses,  to  cast  aside  all  de- 
spondency and  apathy,  to  work  with  self-sacrifice  and  energy  for  the 


The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  War  345 


building  up  of  a  great  Revolutionary  Army,  and  in  particular,  for  the 
immediate  execution  of  the  following  measures: 

(a)  Passing  and  putting  into  effect  of  a  positive  law  which  would 
very  definitely  state  that  disobedience  to  military  orders  in  the  war 
area  is  treason  to  the  country  and  is  liable  to  the  severest  punish- 
ment. 

(b)  Strict  limitation  of  the  activities  of  the  Army  Committees, 
within  well-defined  boundaries,  to  economic,  social  and  educational 
questions,  and  energetic  opposition  to  all  efforts  to  apply  the  elective 
principle  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  Council  on  Field  Operations. 

(c)  An  extensive,  constant,  systematic  and  energetic  propa- 
ganda by  authoritative  and  leading  organs  of  the  Russian  Democracy, 
for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  discipline  among  the  soldiers, 
increasing  their  confidence  in  the  officers  and  promoting  a  correct 
understanding  of  governmental  problems  by  the  Army. 

(d)  The  immediate  organization  of  disciplinary  courts  for  the 
control  of  the  less  intelligent  elements  of  the  Army. 

(e)  Improvement  in  the  military  preparation  of  officers  and  non- 
commissioned officers. 

(f)  Formation  in  each  part  of  the  Army  of  special  detachments 
which  would  be  the  bulwark  of  lofty  military  spirit  and  of  conscien- 
tious performance  of  military  duty. 

(g)  Immediate  consideration  of  the  question  of  appointment  of 
higher  officers,  taking  as  the  basis  the  method  of  ratification  of 
commanders  by  council  composed  of  persons  both  equal  and  sub- 
ordinate to  the   officer  who   is  being  appointed. 

(h)  Putting  into  effect  responsibility  of  commanders  for  the 
field  operations  by  means  of  accounts  to  be  given  to  committees' 
specially  elected  for  that  purpose  from  among  officers  and  sol- 
diers; establishing  of  the  closest  possible  relations  between 
the  front  and  the  rear,  for  which  purpose  the  reserve  forces  should 
be  put  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  corresponding  commander  at  the 
front,  as  regards  the  instruction  of  the  forces  and  the  method  of  re- 
inforcement. 

(i)  Thorough  and  energetic  organization  of  all  problems  of  food 
supply  and  transportation. 

(j)  Summoning  of  all  governmental  and  social  forces  for  a  strug- 
gle against  the  disgrace  of  desertion  and  evasion  of  duty  to  the 
Fatherland." 


CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Second  Cabinet 

THE  resignation  of  A.  I.  Guchkov  and  P.  N.  Miliukov 
led  to  a  governmental  crisis  which  ended  after  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  decided,  by  a  vote  of  41  to 
19,  to  participate  in  the  Government. 

Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  was  again  appointed  Prime  Minister  in  the 
new  Cabinet.  A.  F.  Kerensky  was  appointed  Minister  of  War 
and  Navy,  replacing  A.  I.  Guchkov,  and  to  Kerensky's  place, 
as  Minister  of  Justice,  was  appointed  P.  N.  Pereverzev,  a 
member  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists.  M.  I. 
Terestchenko  replaced  P.  N.  Miliukov  as  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  to  Terestchenko's  post,  as  Minister  of  Finance, 
was  appointed  A.  I.  Shingariev,  the  former  Minister  of  Agri- 
culture. V.  M.  Chernov,  the  leader  of  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists,  was  appointed  Minister  of  Agriculture. 

The  Ministers  A.  I.  Konovalov,  A.  A.  Manuilov,  V.  N.  Lvov 
and  I.  V.  Godniev  retained  their  former  posts.  New  Ministries 
of  Post  and  Telegraph,  of  Labor,  of  Supply,  and  of  Public 
Welfare  were  organized,  and  the  Social-Democrats,  E.  G. 
Tseretelli  and  M.  I.  Skobelev,  the  People's  Socialist,  A.  V. 
Peshekhonov,  and  the  Constitutional-Democrat,  Prince  D.  I. 
Shakhovskoy,  respectively,  were  appointed  to  fill  these  posts. 
Thus  in  the  new  Coalition  Cabinet  seven  Ministries  were  filled 
by  Constitutional-Democrats,  six — by  Socialists,  and  two — ■ 
by  the  Octobrists. 

The  new  Government  began  its  activities  by  publishing  the 
following  declaration : 

"Reorganized  and  strengthened  by  the  entrance  of  new  representa- 
tives of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy,  the  Provisional  Government 
declares  that  it  will  resolutely  and  whole-heartedly  put  into  practice 
the  ideas  of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity — the  principles  inscribed 
on  the  banner  under  which  the  great  Russian  Revolution  has  come 
into  being.  The  Provisional  Government  is  particularly  united  on  the 
following  fundamental  lines  of  its  future  activities: 


SECOND  CABINET 


M~t 


1 — A.  F.  Kerensky,  Minister  of  War 
and  Navy. 

2 — Prince  G.  E.  Lvov.  Prime  Minister 
and  Minister  of  the  Interior. 

3 — M.  I.  Terestchenko.  Minister  of 
Foreign    Affairs. 

4 — A.  A.  Manuilov.  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation. 

5 — X.  P.  Pereverzev,  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice. 

6 — V.  M.  Chernov.  Minister  of 'Agri- 
culture. 

7 — A.  A".  Peshekhonov,  Minister  of 
Supply 


8 — A.   I.    Shingariov,    Minister   of   Fi- 
nance. 
9 — A.      I.      Konovalov.      Minister      of 
Trade   and    Industry. 
10 — N.  V.  Nekras<>\  .   Minster  of  Ways 

of  Communication. 
11 — I.   G.    Tseretelli,    Minister   of  Post 

and   Telegraph. 
12 — M.  I.  Skobelev.  Minister  of  Labor. 
13 — I.    V.    Godnev,    State   Comptroller. 
14 — V.    M.    Lvov.    Procurator    of    the 

Synod. 
15 — Prince    D.    I.    Shakhovskoy.    Min- 
ister of  Public   Welfare. 


348  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


(1)  In  its  foreign  policy,  rejecting,  in  full  harmony  with  the  entire 
people,  the  very  idea  of  a  separate  peace,  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment proclaims  openly  that  it  is  its  aim  to  bring  about,  at  the  earliest 
possible  date,  a  universal  peace  without  the  object  of  either  imposing 
its  rule  over  any  nation,  or  taking  away  any  nation's  wealth,  or 
annexing  forcibly  foreign  territory,  i.  e.,  we  wish  peace  without 
annexations,  without  indemnities  and  on  the  principle  of  allowing 
every  nationality  to  work  out  its  own  destinies.  Firmly  convinced 
that  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Tzar's  regime  and  the  introduction  of 
democratic  principles  in  our  domestic  and  foreign  policies,  a  new  and 
valuable  factor  was  created,  inducing  the  Allied  Democracies  to  aspire 
for  a  lasting  peace  and  brotherhood  of  nations,  the  Provisional 
Government  will  take  the  preliminary  steps  towards  effecting  an 
undertsanding  with  the  Allies  on  the  basis  of  the  declaration  made 
by  the  Provisional  Government  on  March  27th. 

(2)  Believing  that  the  defeat  of  Russia  and  her  Allies  would 
not  only  be  the  source  of  the  greatest  calamity  for  the  peoples  of  the 
world,  but  would  retard  and  make  impossible  the  conclusion  of 
a  general  peace  on  the  basis  of  the  above  mentioned  principles, 
the  Provisional  Government  trusts  that  the  Revolutionary  Army  of 
Russia  will  not  allow  the  German  troops  to  crush  our  Allies  in  the 
West  and  then  turn  their  arms  against  us.  To  strengthen  the  princi- 
ples of  democratization  in  our  Army,  to  organize  and  strengthen  its 
fighting  capacity  for  both  defensive  and  offensive  operations,  is  the 
most  important  task  now  before  the  Provisional  Government. 

(3)  The  Provisional  Government  will  relentlessly  and  resolutely 
fight  the  economic  disruption  through  systematic  introduction  of 
further  government  and  communal  control  over  production,  trans- 
portation, exchange  and  distribution  of  products,  and  if  necessary, 
will  resort  to  reorganization  of  the  industrial  life. 

(4)  Measures  concerning  the  fullest  possible  protection  of  labor 
will  be  developed  further  in  the  most  energetic  way. 

(5)  Leaving  it  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  to  decide  the  question 
of  transfer  of  land  to  the  toilers,  the  Provisional  Government  will 
take  all  necessary  measures  to  secure  the  greatest  productivity  in  the 
baking  and  allied  industries,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the 
country,  and  to  regulate  the  utilization  of  land  in  the  interests  of  the 
country's  needs. 

(6)  Desiring  to  effect  a  gradual  reorganization  of  our  system  of 
finances  on  democratic  principles,  the  Provisional  Government  will 
pay  special  attention  to  the  increase  of  direct  taxation  of  the  prop- 
erty-owning classes  (inheritance  tax),  of  taxation  of  excess  profits 
amassed  in  war  industries,  income  tax,  etc. 


The  Second  Cabinet  349 


(7)  The  work  of  introducing  and  strengthening  the  democratic 
organizations  of  self-government  will  be  continued  with  all  possible 
persistence  and  speed. 

(8)  The  Provisional  Government  will,  in  like  manner,  make  every 
effort  to  convoke  the  Constituent  Assembly  in  Petrograd  as  soon  as 
possible. 

(9)  Considering  it  its  object  to  put  the  above  mentioned  program 
into  practice  without  hesitation,  the  Provisional  Government  cate- 
gorically declares  that  its  work  can  bear  fruit  only  on  condition  that 
the  revolutionary  people  place  their  fullest  and  unconditional  faith 
in  the  Government  and  enable  it  to  exercise  in  reality  its  full  power, 
which  is  so  indispensable  in  the  matter  of  safeguarding  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  Revolution  and  their  further  development. 

Appealing  to  all  the  citizens,  with  the  urgent  plea  to  preserve  the 
unity  of  power  which  is  being  effected  by  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, we  proclaim  that  the  Provisional  Government  will  take  the 
most  energetic  measures  to  save  the  country  from  all  counter- 
revolutionary attempts  as  well  as  from  anarchistic,  unlawful  acts  of 
violence,  disorganizing  the  country  and  preparing  the  ground  for 
counter-revolution.  The  Provisional  Government  believes  that  on  this 
road  it  will  meet  with  the  unhesitating  support  of  all  those  to  whom 
Russia's  liberty  is  dear." 

On  May  18,  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Petrograd  Council 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  M.  I.  Skobelev.  the 
new  Minister  of  Labor,  made  public  the  Declaration  of  the 
Government,  and  N.  S.  Tscheidze,  the  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil, introduced  a  resolution,  already  accepted  by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Council,  approving  the  entrance  of  the 
Socialist  Ministers  into  the  Cabinet. 

Among  the  Bolsheviki  who  opposed  the  resolution  was 
Leon  Trotsky,  who  then  addressed  the  Council  for  the  first 
time,  having  only  on  the  preceding  day  returned  from  the 
United  States. 

Trotsky  pointed  out  that  the  participation  of  the  Socialists 
in  the  Coalition  Ministry  was  a  dangerous  step.  "I  never 
believed,"'  he  said,  "that  the  emancipation  of  the  working  class 
will  come  from  above.  Division  of  power  will  not  cease  with  the 
Socialists'  entrance  into  the  Ministry.  A  strong  revolutionary 
power  is  necessary.  The  Russian  Revolution  will  not  perish. 
But  I  believe  only  in  a  miracle  from  below.  There  are  three 
commandments     for    the     proletariat:     (1)    Transmission    of 


350  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

power  to  the  revolutionary  people;  (2)  control  over  their  own 
leaders,  and  (3)  confidence  in  their  own  revolutionary  powers." 

After  a  debate,  the  meeting  adopted  the  following  resolution, 
with  only  several  dissenting  votes: 

"Acknowledging  that  the  declaration  of  the  Provisional 
Government,  which  has  been  reconstructed  and  fortified  by 
the  entrance  of  representatives  of  the  Revolutionary  Democ- 
racy, conforms  to  the  idea  and  purpose  of  strengthening  the 
achievements  of  the  Revolution  and  its  further  development, 
the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has  de- 
termined : 

(1)  Representatives  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  must  enter  into  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. 

(2)  Those  representatives  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  who  join  the  Government  must,  until  the 
creation  of  an  All-Russian  organ  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  consider  themselves  responsible  to 
the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates, 
and  must  pledge  themselves  to  give  accounts  of  all  their  ac- 
tivities to  that  Council. 

(3)  The  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates 
expresses  its  full  confidence  in  the  new  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  urges  all  friends  of  democracy  to  give  this  Govern- 
ment active  assistance,  which  would  assure  it  the  full  measure 
of  power  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  Revolution's  gains 
and  for  its  further  development." 


A  month  later,  in  the  middle  of  June,  this  same  problem, 
the  relation  of  the  proletariat  to  the  Coalition  Government, 
was  once  more  debated, — this  time  at  the  All-Russian  Con- 
gress of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  Again,  one  of 
the  main  speakers  of  the  Bolsheviki  was  Leon  Trotsky. 

"I  tell  you  that  the  country  is  approaching  an  outright  catastrophe," 
said  Trotsky,  "because  somehow  we  cannot  understand  that  the 
whole  thing  lies  in  the  creation  of  a  homogeneous  power.  In  two 
weeks  the  question  will  become  more  acute.  The  question  is — power 
to  whom  and  over  whom?  Is  it  power  over  the  Revolutionary 
Democracy  or  the  power  of  the  Revolutionary   Democracy?     Do   not 


The  Second  Cabinst  351 


forget  that  at  the  moment  of  demobilization,  we  will  need  a  still  more 
powerful  government,  and,  therefore  I  say  that  full  power  must  be 
turned  over  to  the   Democracy. 

The  policy  of  continual  postponement  and  the  detailed  preparations 
for  calling  the  Constituent  Assembly  is  a  false  policy.  It  may  destroy 
even  the  very  realization  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  And  these 
black  ravens  of  the  Fourth  Imperial  Duma  are  not  at  all  so  inno- 
cent. Their  appointees  in  the  Ministry  are  starving  out  the  Russian 
Revolution  practically  in  all  spheres,  while  they  themselves  sit 
in  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  and  wait  for  the  time,  when,  as  Deputy 
Kerensky  thinks,  the  country  itself  will  wish  for  the  return  of  the 
old  Octobrist  or  Tzar's  Government.  Then  Rodzianko  will  com'; 
and  tie  us  together  in  one  bag,  you  from  the  right  wing  and  us 
from  the  left." 

Trotsky  was  answered  by  the  Minister  of  Post  and  Tele- 
graph. I.  G.  Tseretelli : 

"As  a  representative  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy,  in  the 
Provisional  Government,"  said  I.  G.  Tseretelli,  "I  want  to  point 
out,  so  as  to  make  it  absolutely  clear,  on  what  conditions  we  consider 
it  possible  to  work,  what  we  will  do  in  the  future,  and  what  support 
we  want  from  the  revolutionary  masses,  if  the  Democracy  should  wish 
that  we  remain  in  power.  The  Provisional  Government  came  into 
being  by  means  of  an  agreement  between  the  Revolutionary  Democ- 
racy and  the  bourgeoisie.  We  are  living  through  a  moment  when  the 
concentration  of  all  forces  of  the  country  is  needed  to  liquidate  the 
interior  and  foreign  crises. 

This  problem  can  only  be  met  adequately  by  a  government  which 
unites  the  tremendous  majority  of  the  population  and  Avhich  rests 
on  all  the  living  forces  of  the  country.  The  Soviets  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates  undoubtedly  have  great  influence;  none  the 
less,  we  cannot  say  that  they  unite  all  the  forces  of  the  country. 
Except  the  classes,  which  are  united  by  the  Councils,  there  exists 
still  the  tax-paying  Russia  and  the  propertied  classes.  In  the  primary 
stages  of  the  Revolution  there  was  a  moment  when  the  Imperial 
Duma  became  the  center  of  it.  The  Duma  stood  then  for  progressive 
ideas  and  in  this  way  has  rendered  invaluable  services  to  the  Revolu- 
tion. In  its  progressive  movements  the  Revolution  cleaved  away  from 
itself  several  classes  of  society  who  were  with  it  at  the  beginning. 
These  classes  remained  outside  of  the  people's  movements.  At  the 
first  moment  the  question  of  whether  Miliukov  or  Guchkov,  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  imperialistic  circles,  could  enter  the  Cabinet  of  the 
Provisional  Government,  did  not  occur  at  all.  Soon,  however,  these 
elements  were  cast  aside  by  the  progressive  advance  of  the  Revolution. 
The  Revolution  calls  everybody  to  come  under  its  banners,  and  he 
who  turns  away  from   these  banners  remains  isolated. 


352  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

The  first  Cabinet  of  the  Provisional  Government  was  replaced 
by  the  Coalition  Government.  The  question  arises  whether  there  are 
not  in  the  personnel  of  the  present  Government  persons  unable 
to  accomplish  the  program  of  principal  political  reforms  mapped  out 
by  the  New  Government.  The  answer  to  this  question,  life  itself 
will  give.  Only  by  actual  experience  will  it  be  made  clear  whether 
the  representatives  of  the  bourgeoisie  are  really  capable  of  under- 
taking a  radical  program  of  reforms  or  whether  they  came  to  sabotage 
this  program.  If  the  representatives  of  the  bourgeoisie  prove  in- 
capable, they  will  be  expelled,  but  until  that  happens  nobody  may 
discredit  them  in  advance,  because  exactly  such  a  lack  of  confidence 
would  bring  the  disorganization  which  is  so  dangerous  at  the  present 
time. 

One  must  recognize  that  even  the  Imperial  Duma,  which  was 
called  by  some  one  here  'a  meeting  of  dead  men,'  still  has  great 
influence  and  authority  with  very  large  masses  of  the  people,  and 
only  in  the  future  progressive  advance  of  the  Revolution  will  the 
real  role  of  the  Imperial  Duma  possibly  become  clear,  and  then  the 
people  will  become  averse  to  it." 

Continuing,  Tseretelli  passed  over  to  the  arguments  of  the 
Bolsheviki  and  pointed  out  that  the  Bolsheviki  did  not  feel 
responsibility  for  the  consequences  to  which  their  proposals 
may  lead  : 

"It  is  proposed  that  we  speak  to  the  Allies  with  ultimatums,  but  did 
those  who  made  these  proposals  think  that  this  road  might  lead  to  the 
breaking  of  diplomatic  relations  with  the  Allies  and  to  the  very 
separate  peace  which  is  condemned  practically  by  all  of  us?  Did 
Lenine  think  of  the  consequences  of  his  proposal  to  arrest  several 
dozen  capitalists?  Can  the  Bolsheviki  guarantee  that  their  road  will 
lead  us  to  the  correct  solution  of  the  crisis,  and  if  they  guarantee 
this,  then  they  do  not  know  what  they  are  doing.  The  Bolshe- 
viki road  can  lead  only  to  civil  war." 

Tseretelli  declared  that  he  would  not  follow  this  road,  but 
would  lead  Russia  on  the  road  on  which  it  is  possible  only  to 
die  or  to  conquer.     He  hoped  that  Russia  wouid  conquer. 

Tseretelli  was  followed  by  the  Bolshevik,  Kamenev.  Kam- 
enev  began  by  answering  the  former  speaker: 

"The  present  Coalition  Cabinet,"  said  he,  "cannot  receive  great 
and  powerful  authority  because  the  organized  Democracy,  due  to 
its  very  structure,  cannot  give  this  power  to  the  present  Govern- 
ment. The  men  who  accepted  posts  in  the  Coalition  Government, 
accepted  it  with  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  ruin  of  Russia,  but 
were  such  measures  taken  by  the  Government? 


The  Second  Cabinet  353 


All  revolutionary  measures  of  the  Provisional  Government  are 
being  delayed  and  rejected,  because  everything  in  the  Government  is 
based  on  an  agreement  between  the  Revolution  and  the  counter- 
revolution which  is  being  organized. 

Our  Ministers,  in  the  final  analysis,  have  to  defend  measures  which 
even  Miliukov  or  Prince  Lvov  would  hardly  dare  to  defend." 

Kamenev  stopped  to  discuss  the  statement  that  the  Bolshe- 
viki  desired  a  separate  peace  and  declared  : 

"The  Conference  of  the  Bolsheviki  has  expressed  a  resolute  protest 
against  the  base  calumny  which  claims  that  we  are  for  a  separate 
peace. 

In  general,  however,  comrades,  we  do  not  reject  a  separate  peace 
on  the  ground  that  agreements  with  imperialists  are  valuable  to  us 
and  that  we  consider  inviolable  the  note  binding  all  the  allies,  which 
deprives  them  of  the  right  to  independently  conclude  a  separate 
peace.  For  us,  there  is  something  higher  than  all  these  agreements — 
namely,  the  interests  of  the  proletariat  and  the  Revolution,  and  it 
these  interests  should  demand  the  destruction  of  the  existing  agree- 
ments, then  we  will  destroy  them. 

Generally  speaking,  a  separate  peace  is  outside  the  horizon  ot 
those  acts  which  w,e  as  a  Party  may  undertake.  We  suggest  to  treat 
very  carefully  the  question  of  a  separate  peace.  Only  the  one  who 
stakes  everything  on  a  strong  army  can  in  the  end  be  forced  to  accept 
a  separate  peace. 

If  the  revolutionary  proletariat  of  Europe  will  fail  to  support  the 
Russian  Revolution,  the  latter  will  be  ruined.  And  as  that  support  is 
the  only  guaranty  of  the  safety  of  the  Revolution,  we  cannot  change  our 
policy  by  discussing  the  question  as  to  how  much  fraternizing  will 
stimulate  the  awakening  of  the  proletarian  powers  of  Europe.  Other- 
wise, the  Russian  Revolution  will  be  rendered  powerless  by  the  stones 
of  the  imperialistic  mills,  and  it  will  not  matter  much  whether 
these  come  from  the  side  of  Germany  or  Anglo-Japan.  And  we  shall 
not  discuss  whether  it  would  be  better  for  us  to  be  a  colony  of  Ger- 
man or  Anglo-Japanese  imperialism. 

We  do  not  care  for  either,  and  will  tread  the  path  which  is  out- 
side of  these  possibilities.  History  has  shown  that  the  logic  of  the 
Revolution  lies  really  in  this  process. 

The  Revolution  was  planned  as  a  small  Revolution  in  the  name 
of  a  great  war,  but  it  turned  out  to  be  a  great  Revolution  and 
a  small  war.  We  stand  now  at  the  turning  point,  when  it  really 
threatens  to  be  seduced  to  a  small  revolution  and  a  great  war.  And 
Miliukov,  coming  forward  with  his  declarations,  did  not  speak  in 
favor  of  the  aims  contemplated  by  you,  but  for  the  triumph  of 
the  ideas  of  the  present  moment,  which  here,  in  Russia,  must  result  in 
the  strangling  of  the  Revolution. 


354  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

The  only  outlet  from  the  situation  is  a  complete  break  between 
the  Revolution  and  the  imperialistic  aims.  And  this  the  Revolution 
cannot  do,  until  it  breaks  with  bourgeoisie. 

For  two  months  you  have  placed  your  confidence  in  Miliukov, 
allowed  him  to  violate  the  young  Russian  Revolution  in  the  name  of 
his  imperialistic  aims.  When  Miliukov  was  issuing  notes  to  which 
you  would  object,  he  would  give  explanations  and  you  would  find 
them  satisfactory.  That  lasted  two  months,  and  you  have  no  right  to 
expect  that  the  foreign  proletariat  will  have  faith  in  your  notes  and 
telegrams,  in  which  you  continue  to  write  one  thing,  while  at  home 
you  stand  for  an  imperialistic  government. 

When  the  Coalition  Cabinet  was  formed  and  you  received  new 
Ministers,  the  general  situation   did  not  improve, .but  grew  worse. 

You  must  prove  by  deeds  that  you  stand  for  the  principle  'without 
annexations  or  indemnities'  while,  in  reality,  Finland  is  unable  until 
now  to  obtain  from  you  the  recognition  of  those  rights  which  you 
yourselves  have  recognized  to  be  hers,  on  paper.  And  as  to  the 
Ukraine,  you  did  not  want  to  recognize  until  now  her  right  for 
national  self-definition." 

The  Congress  decided  to  accept  as  a  basic  resolution  the  one 
offered  by  the  Mensheviki  and  Socialists-Revolutionists,  which 
was  passed  by  a  vote  of  all  the  members  except  the  Bolshe- 
viki  and  a  part  of  the  Mensheviki-Internationalists.  The  reso- 
lution follows : 

"The  Congress  recognizes: 

1.  That  under  the  conditions  created  as  a  result  of  the  first  Min- 
isterial crisis,  the  passing  over  of  all  power  to  the  bourgeoisie  ele- 
ments would  deal  a  blow  at  the  cause  of  the  Revolution. 

2.  That  the  transfer  of  all  power  to  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  at  the  present  moment  of  the  Russian  Revolution, 
would  greatly  weaken  her  powers  by  prematurely  driving  away  from 
her  elements  which  are  still  capable  of  serving  her,  and  would 
threaten  the  ruin  of  the  Revolution:  we  approve  the  actions  of 
the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  which 
has  found  an  outlet  from  the  crisis  of  April  20-21  in  the  creation 
of  a  Coalition  Government,  on  the  basis  of  a  resolute  and  consistent 
democratic  platform  in  the  sphere  of  foreign  and  interior  policies. 

Having  heard  the  explanations  of  the  comrades-Ministers  about 
the  general  policy  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  expressing 
full  confidence  in  them,  the  All-Russian  Congress  recognizes  the 
direction  of  this  policy  as  serving  the  interests  of  the  Revolution. 

The  Congress  calls  upon  the  Provisional  Government  to  carry 
out  more  resolutely  and  more  consistently  the  democratic  platform 
accepted  by  it,  and,  in  particular:      (a)   to  strive  persistently  for  the 


The  Second  Cabinet  355 


speediest  conclusion  of  a  general  peace  without  annexations  or  in- 
demnities, on  the  basis  of  self-definition  of  nationalities:  (1))  to  carry 
out  the  further  democratization  of  the  Army  and  to  strengthen  its 
fighting  power;  (c)  to  undertake,  with  the  direct  participation  of  the 
toiling  masses,  the  most  energetic  measures  for  the  combating  of  the 
financial-economic  disruption  and  disorganization  of  the  fond  supply 
produced  by  the  war  and  made  acute  by  the  policy  of  the  propertied 
classes;  (d)  to  conduct  a  systematic  and  resolute  fight  against  counter- 
revolutionary attempts;  fe)  to  bring  about  the  speediest  realization 
of  the  measures  affecting  the  questions  of  land  and  labor,  in  accordance 
with  demands  of  the  organized  toiling  masses  and  dictated  by  the 
vital  interests  of  public  economy,  greatly  sapped  by  the  war:  (?)  to 
aid  in  the  organization  of  all  forces  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy 
by  means  of  rapid  and  radical  reforms  in  the  systems  of  local  govern- 
ment and  autonomy  on  a  democratic  basis,  and  the  speediest  introduc- 
tion of  Zemstvos  and  Municipal  autonomy,  where  there  is  none  as 
yet;  (g)  particularly  does  the  Congress  demand  the  speediest  con- 
vocation of  the  All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly. 

At  the  same  time,  for  the  more  successful  and  resolute  realization 
of  the  indicated  program,  for  the  full  unification  of  the  forces  of  the 
Democracy  and  the  expression  of  its  will  in  all  phases  of  government 
life,  the  Congress  finds  it  necessary  to  create  a  sole,  plenipotentiary 
and  representative  organ  of  the  whole  organized  Revolutionary  Democ- 
racy of  Russia,  which  organ  must  be  comprised  of  the  representatives 
of  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  as  well  as  of  representatives  of  the  All-Russian  Congress 
of  Peasants'  Delegates. 

To  this  All-Russian  representative  body  the  Socialist  Ministers 
are  responsible  for  the  foreign  and  interior  policy  of  the  Provisional 
Government. 

This  responsibility  gives  assurance  that  while  the  Socialist  Min- 
isters remain  in  the  Provisional  Government,  the  Government  acts  in 
accord  with  the  Democracy  and  therefore  the  Government  should 
possess  full  power  and  the  active  support  of  all  the  democratic  forces 
of  the  country. 

The  Congress  calls  upon  the  whole  Revolutionary  Democracy  of 
Russia  to  consolidate  its  forces  even  more  closely  around  the  Coun- 
cils of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates;  to  support 
energetically  the  Provisional  Government  in  all  its  activities  to 
strengthen  and  broaden  the  conquests  of  the  Revolution." 


CHAPTER  IX 

Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  in  their  Relation 
to  the  Russian  Revolution 

THE  Revolution  in  Russia  inspired  greatly  the  Labor  and 
Socialist  Movements  in  the  Allied  countries,  bringing 
them  hope  that  the  free  Russian  Democracy  would 
participate  with  renewed  vigor  in  the  battle  of  the  Allied 
Democracies  against  German  autocracy.  Such  prominent 
Socialist  and  Labor  leaders  as  Emile  Vandervelde,  Albert 
Thomas,  Arthur  Henderson  and  Arturo  Labriola,  representing 
respectively  Belgian,  French,  English  and  Italian  Socialism 
and  Labor,  personally  visited  Petrograd  in  May,  1917.  While 
James  Duncan  and  Charles  Edward  Russell,  representing 
American  Labor  and  that  part  of  American  Socialism  which 
recognizes  this  war,  on  the  Allied  side,  as  a  just  war  for  a 
democratic  cause,  arrived  later  with  the  American  Extraor- 
dinary Mission,  Samuel  Gompers,  the  President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor,  on  May  7,  cabled,  in  behalf  of 
American  Labor,  the  following  appeal  to  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates : 

"The  gravest  crisis  in  the  world's  history  is  now  hanging  in  the 
balance  and  the  course  which  Russia  will  pursue  may  have  a  de- 
termining influence  whether  democracy  or  autocracy  shall  prevail. 
That  democracy  and  freedom  will  finally  prevail  there  can  be  no  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  men  who  know,  but  the  cost,  the  time  lost,  and  the 
sacrifices  which  would  ensue  from  lack  of  united  action  may  be 
appalling.     It  is  to  avoid  this  that  I   address  you. 

In  view  of  the  grave  crisis  through  which  the  Russian  people  are 
passing,  we  assure  you  that  you  can  rely  absolutely  upon  the  whole- 
hearted support  and  cooperation  of  the  American  people  in  the  great 
war  against  our  common  enemy,  Kaiserism.  In  the  fulfillment  of 
that  cause  the  present  American  Government  has  the  support  of  90 
per  cent,  of  the  American  people,  including  the  working  classes  of 
both  the  cities  and  the  agricultural  sections. 

In  free  America,  as  in  free  Russia,  the  agitators  for  a  peace  favor- 
able to  Prussian  militarism  have  been  allowed  to  express  their  opin- 
ions, so  that  the  conscious  and  unconscious  tools  of  the  Kaiser  appear 
more  influential  than  they  really  are.  You  should  realize  the  truth 
of    the    situation.      There    are    but    few    in    America    willing    to    allow 




The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  357 

Kaiserism  and  its  allies  to  continue  their  rule  over  those  non-German 
peoples  who  wish  to  be  free  from  their  domination.  Should  we  not 
protest  against  the  pro-Kaiser  Socialist  interpretation  of  the  demand 
for  no  annexation,  namely,  that  all  oppressed  non-German  people 
shall  be  compelled  to  remain  under  the  domination  of  Prussia  and  her 
lackeys,  Austria  and  Turkey?  Should  we  not  rather  accept  the  better 
interpretation  that  there  must  be  no  forcible  annexations,  but  that 
every  people  must  be  free  to  choose  any  allegiance  it  desires,  as  de- 
manded by  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates? 

Like  yourselves,  we  are  opposed  to  all  punitive  and  improper  in- 
demnities. We  denounce  the  onerous  punitive  indemnities  alreadv 
imposed  by  the  Kaiser  upon  the  people  of  Serbia,  Belgium,  and 
Poland. 

America's  workers  share  the  view  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Delegates  that  the  only  way  in  which  the  German 
people  can  bring  the  war  to  an  early  end  is  by  imitating  the  glorious 
example  of  the  Russian  people,  compelling  the  abdication  of  the  Ho- 
henzollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs  and  driving  the  tyrannous  nobility. 
bureaucracy,  and  the  military  caste  from  power. 

Let  the  German  Socialists  attend  to  this,  and  cease  their  false 
pretenses  and  underground  plotting  to  bring  about  an  abortive  peace 
in  the  interest  of  Kaiserism  and  the  ruling  class.  Let  them  cease 
calling  pretended  'international'  conferences  at  the  instigation  or 
connivance  of  the  Kaiser.  Let  them  cease  their  intrigues  to  cajole 
the  Russian  and  American  working  people  to  interpret  your  demand, 
'no  annexation,  no  indemnities,'  in  a  way  to  leave  undiminished  the 
prestige  and  the  power  of  the  German  military  caste. 

Now  that  Russian  autocracy  is  overthrown,  neither,  the  American 
Government  nor  the  American  people  apprehend  that  the  wisdom  and 
experience  of  Russia  in  the  coming  Constitutional  Assembly  will 
adopt  any  form  of  government  other  than  the  one  best  suited  to  your 
needs.  We  feel  confident  that  no  message,  no  individual  emissary. 
and  no  commission  has  been  sent  or  will  be  sent  with  authority  to 
offer  any  advice  whatever  to  Russia  as  to  the  conduct  of  her  in- 
ternal affairs.  Any  commission  that  may  be  sent  will  help  Russia 
in  any  way  that  she  desires  to  combat  Kaiserism  wherever  it  exists 
or  may  manifest  itself. 

Word  has  reached  us  that  false  reports  of  an  American  pin  - 
and  of  American  opinions  contrary  to  the  above  statement  have 
gained  some  circulation  in  Russia.  We  denounce  these  reporl 
the  criminal  work  of  desperate  pro-Kaiser  propagandists,  circulated 
with  the  intent  to  deceive  and  to  arouse  hostile  feelings  between  the 
two  great  democracies  of  the  world.  The  Russian  people  should 
know  that  these  activities  are   only  additional   manifestations   oi   the 


358  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

'dark  forces.'  with  *  which  Russia  has  been  only  too  familiar  in  the 
unhappy  past. 

The  American  Government,  the  American  people,  the  American 
labor  movement,  are  whole-heartedly  with  the  Russian  workers,  the 
Russian  masses,  in  the  great  effort  to  maintain  the  freedom  you  have 
already  achieved,  and  to  solve  the  grave  problems  yet  before  you. 
We  earnestly  appeal  to  you  to  make  common  cause  with  us  to  abolish 
all  forms  of  autocracy  and  despotism  and  to  establish  and  maintain 
for  generations  yet  unborn  the  priceless  treasures  of  justice,  freedom, 
democracy,  and  humanity." 

Emile  Yanclervelde,  the  former  Chairman  of  the  Interna- 
tional Socialist  Bureau,  who  came  to  Petrograd  together  with 
his  friends,  De  Brucker  and  De  Mann,  on  May  19.  1917.  ex- 
pressed the  views  of  the  Belgian  Socialist  Delegation  in  a 
lengthy  interview  with  representatives  of  the  Petrograd  and 
Moscow  press : 

"My  comrades,  Louis  De  Brucker  and  Henry  De  Mann,  belong  to 
the  extreme  left  wing  of  the  Belgian  Social-Democrats,"  said  Emile 
Vandervelde.  "Before  the  war  both  were  active  representatives  of 
anti-militarism.  I  must  say  that  for  us  Belgians  anti-militarist  propa- 
ganda was  always  a  question  of  honor. 

My  experience,  in  court,  as  lawyer  for  Brucker,  who  was  accused 
of  making  a  speech  to  soldiers  in  which  he  urged  them  to  disobey 
orders  to  shoot  striking  workers  or  something  similar,  I  consider 
one  of  the  best  reminiscences  of  my  youth.  Although  I  was  unable 
to  secure  Brucker's  acquittal — he  was  sentenced  to  six  months  in 
prison — I   recall  this  incident  with  joy. 

My  young  comrade,  De  Mann,  became  very  prominent  before  the 
war  as  one  of  the  most  active  workers  in  the  cause  of  the  international 
fellowship  of  Socialists.  I  consider  it  necessary  to  state  that  De  Mann 
had  numerous  and  close  connections  with  the  Socialist  circles  of 
Germany  and  Austria.  He  was  Secretary  of  the  Belgian  Union  of 
Socialist  Young  People,  which  carried  on  an  active  anti-militarist 
propaganda. 

On  the  day  Belgium  was  invaded  by  the  German  troops,  they 
both  enlisted  in  the  Army.  Since  then  they  have  both  been  promoted 
for  service  at  the  front.  De  Brucker  to  the  rank  of  sergeant,  De  Mann 
to  that  of  second  lieutenant. 

This  is  not  my  first  time  in  Russia.  I  was  in  Petrograd  several 
days  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  I  shall  remember  forever  the 
truly  fraternal  welcome  given  me,  as  representative  of  the  Belgian 
Social-Democrats  and  Chairman  of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau, 
by  the  Russian  Social-Democrats  of  all  groups. 

Recalling  now  my  first  visit  to  Petrograd.  I  cannot  help  expressing 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  359 


the  feeling  I  had  the  instant  I  entered  free  Russia.  At  that  time, 
in  the  summer  of  1914,  Belgium  was  the  freest  country  in  Europe. 
Russia  I  saw  then  in  a  state  of  grievous  oppression,  the  Russian 
people  were  under  the  cruel  yoke  of  the  autocracy.  Now  Russia  is 
the  freest  country  in  the  world,  and  the  Belgian  people,  enslaved  by 
the  Germans,  live  under  an  oppression  that  the  world  has  never 
before  seen.  I  shall  not  tell  you  the  history  of  our  sufferings.  You 
know  it. 

We  three  came  now  to  Russia  to  greet  the  Russian  Revolution 
in  the  name  of  the  suffering  Belgian  workers  and  to  ask  from  the 
Russian  people  assistance  and  support. 

Our  arrival  was  simultaneous  with  the  reorganization  of  the  Rus- 
sian Government.  In  the  declaration  of  your  new  Government  I  note 
that  its  program  of  foreign  policies  is  based  on  the  decision  to  fight 
for  a  peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities  and  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  self-determination  of  nations.  We  would  not  be 
Socialists  if  we  did  not  adopt  this  formula  directly  and  frankly.  But 
just  as  directly  do  I  state  that  this  formula  should  be  expressed 
definitely   and   concretely. 

With   regard   to   Belgium   I   declare   the   following: 

The  great  powers  can,  and,  in,  my  opinion,  should  renounce  all 
claims  to  indemnities.  This  is  prompted  not  only  by  principles,  but 
also  by  plain  common  sense.  It  would  be  insane  to  prolong  the  war 
for  the  sake  of  indemnities,  when  the  war  demands  gigantic  disburse- 
ments, not  to  speak  of  the  loss  of  life,  for  which  there  is  absolutely  no 
compensation.  But  for  Belgium  this  question  is  a  different  one.  Bel- 
gium wanted  no  war.  Germany  compelled  us  to  take  up  arms.  On 
August  4.  1914,  the  German  Chancellor  stated  in  the  Reichstag:  'I 
admit  that  we  have  committed  an  injustice  towards  Belgium.  When 
we  reach  our  goal,  she  will  be  compensated  for  this  injustice.'  Among 
the  peoples  of  the  Entente  countries,  peoples  who  put  justice  above 
everything,  there  can  be  no  persons  who  would  not,  in  this  respect  at 
least,  share  the  point  of  view  of  the  Chancellor.  We  demand  that  our 
Allies  compel  Germany  to  fulfill  the  obligation  acknowledged  by  her 
Chancellor.  In  some  circles  I  have  heard  it  said  that  Belgium  must,  of 
course,  receive  an  indemnity,  but  this  could  be  paid  to  her  by  all  the 
powers  together,  or  by  the  powers  which  guaranteed  her  neutrality. 
We  protest  against  this  plan.  We  protest  because  this  plan  is  im- 
moral. Germany  is  guilty  of  an  injustice,  acknowledged  by  her  Chan- 
cellor, and   she  must  repay   Belgium's  losses. 

We  demand  only  full  restoration  of  our  independence.  To  this 
I  shall  add.  not  as  a  Belgian,  but  as  a  European:  Every  annexation 
without  the  people's  consent  is  more  than  a  crime,  it  is  a  fatal  political 
mistake.  But  precisely  because  I  am,  in  principle,  an  opponent  of 
illegal  annexations,  I  consider  a  peace  based  on  the  status  quo  ante 


J60  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


helium  as  contradictory  of  that  principle.  The  emancipation  of  the 
Armenians  from  the  Turkish  despotism,  bloody  and  unscrupulous, 
the  return  to  the  Italian  people  of  the  Italian  Trentino,  the  return 
to  France  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  against  Germany's  annexation  of 
which  violent  protests  were  made  by  Karl  Marx,  Bebel  and  Lieb- 
knecht,  Sr., — these  are  not  annexations,  but  just  the  opposite, — I  con- 
sider them  the  restoration  of  people's  rights,  violated  by  force. 

The  rights  of  people  to  self-determination  is  the  basis  of  all 
future  international  politics.  Without  a  full  realization  of  this  right, 
a  durable  peace  is  unthinkable.  The  peoples  will  really  receive  this 
right  when  the  Tzar  in  Berlin  and  the  Tzar  in  Vienna  follow  the 
Tzar  of  Petrograd,  into  private  life. 

Three  Tzars,  the  Russian,  German  and  Austrian,  are  the  terrible 
trio,  who  for  over  a  century  have  been  weighing  down  heavily  upon 
Europe.  It  is  they  who  tore  Poland  to  pieces  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  is  they,  who,  several  years  after  that,  com- 
bined for  the  purpose  of  strangling  the  French  Revolution  and  of 
stopping  the  march  of  freedom.  It  is  they  who,  having  dethroned 
Xapoleon,  concluded  the  'Holy  Alliance'  against  the  freedom  of 
peoples.  It  is  they,  who,  in  1848,  combined  to  smother  the  Revolution' 
in  Berlin  and  Vienna.  It  is  they  who  created  the  policy  of  armed 
neutrality,  which  led  to  the  great  European  war  and  the  monstrous 
destruction  of  lives. 

The  reaction  had  three  heads.  One  head  of  this  hydra  has  been 
cut  off,  but  two  still  remain;  and,  do  not  deceive  yourselves,  they  are 
more  dangerous  than  ever;  they  conceal  more  cruel  and  insidious 
plots  against  the  freedom  of  peoples  than  ever  before. 

The  newspaper  'Pravdar*  to-day  published  an  article  accusing  me 
of  advising  my  Russian  comrades  to  give  up  revolutionary  activity 
during  the  war  and  to  become  reconciled  with  Tzarism.  I  am  also 
accused  of  having  my  appeal  to  the  Russian  Socialists  edited  by  a 
Russian  diplomat. 

I  think  it  necessary  to  make  a  full  explanation  of  that  circum- 
stance. I  do  not  regret  my  acts  of  that  time.  If  I  had  occasion  to 
do  the  same  thing  to-day,  under  similar  circumstances,  I  would  do  it. 

It  was  in  the  first  days  of  the  war.  Belgium  was  already  crushed. 
The  Germans  had  invaded  France  and  were  moving  towards 
Paris.  The  Belgian  Minister  of  War  asked  me  whether  I  did  not 
consider  it  advisable  to  appeal  to  my  Russian  comrades,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  uniting  all  freedom-loving  people  in  their  fight  against  Ger- 
many, who  had  just  then  committed  such  a  crime.  I  told  him  I  was 
ready  to  do  so.  The  Minister  guaranteed  that  my  telegram  would 
reach  its  destination.  He  promised  to  communicate  with  the  Russian 
Embassy  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  passed  by  the  Russian  censor. 
In  that  telegram  I  told  my  Russian  comrades  that  I  knew  their 
*The  official  publication  of  the  Bolshevist  Party. 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  361 


attitude  toward  Tzarism  and  that  I  agreed  with  them.  But,  while 
understanding  their  position  with  regard  to  the  war,  I  asked  them 
to  appreciate  the  situation  as  a  whole  and  called  their  attention  to 
the  fact  that  German  militarism  had  seized  the  Western  Democ- 
racies by  the  throat,  to  strangle  them,  in  order  to  have  reaction  reign 
;n  Europe.  This  is  all.  I  repeat,  under  similar  circumstances,  I  would 
do  the  same  thing  to-day. 

To  say  that  I  am  an  opponent  of  the  Russian  Revolution  is 
slander  against  which  I  protest  with  all  the  powers  of  my  soul  for 
myself,  my  comrades  and  the  whole  Belgian  people.  You  surely  know 
that  when  the  workers  in  occupied  Belgium  heard  of  the  Russian 
Revolution,  they  rejoiced.  To  them,  as  to  myself,  the  news  of  Russia's 
emancipation  meant  the  certain  emancipation  of  Belgium. 

As  for  the  statement  by  Prince  Kudashev,  it  is  also  interpreted 
incorrectly  and  evil-mindedl}r.  My  telegram  had  to  pass  the  Russian 
censor.  For  this  reason  it  was  sent  by  our  Minister  of  War  to  the 
Russian  Embassy.  In  the  evening  of  that  day,  Kudashev  informed 
me  that  because  of  two  sentences  in  which  I  spoke  harshly  of  Russian 
Tzarism,  the  telegram  was  likely  to  be  barred,  and  asked  me  to  mode- 
rate these  sentences,  if  possible.  Since  the  moderating  of  these  harsh 
words  did  not  distort  my  thought,  fully  expressed  in  my  statement 
that  I  agreed  entirely  with  my  comrades'  attitude  towards  Tzarism,  I 
consented  to  the  changes,  which  I  made  together  with  Kudashev." 

With  regard  to  the  present  time,  Yandervelde  said  : 

"I  find  that  no  time  should  be  lost,  at  present,  on  festivities  and 
mutual  congratulations  on  the  acquisition  of  freedom;  one  should  not 
indulge  in  fiery  speeches  on  solidarity  among  peoples,  one  should  not 
be  deluded  by  illusory  negotiations  with  the  governmental  Social- 
Democrats  of  Germany,  one  should  not  be  tempted  by  fraternization 
at  the  front,  which  the  Germans  make  use  of  only  for  the  purpose  of 
espionage.  Work  in  the  factories  should  now  be  carried  on.  The 
Germans  should  be  given  no  possibility  of  transferring  division  after 
division  from  the  Russian  to  the  French  and  Italian  fronts.  Kerensky's 
speech  at  the  Peasants'  Congress  has  given  me  deep  joy.  He  under- 
stands the  situation  better  than  any  one  else.  We  trust  that  he  will 
pour  his  conviction  into  the  soul  of  everyone.  We  trust  that  the  Rus- 
sian Democracy  and  the  Russian  Army  will  prove  to  the  whole  world 
that  the  discipline  of  spirit  is  more  powerful  than  the  iron  discipline  of 
force.  And,  therefore,  we  believe  in  the  success  of  our  common  cause, 
we  believe  that  freedom  will  not  be  crushed  but  will  triumph  through- 
out the  world." 

The  well-known  Italian  Socialist.  Arturo  Labriola,  expressed 
his  views  in  a  remarkable  speech  delivered  on  June  2,  1917.  at 
a  meeting-  in  the  Petrograd  People's  House  : 


362  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


"Believe  me,  citizens,"  said  Labriola,  "it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
convey  to  you  the  greetings  of  friends  who  have  come  here  from  a 
far-off  land,  for  the  express  purpose  of  congratulating  the  Russian 
people,  and  to  convey  these  greetings  in  a  foreign  tongue  and  in  the 
midst  of  so  much  excitement. 

And  yet  I  want  to  believe  that  the  feelings  that  are  stirring 
within  me.  when  I  speak  with  you,  citizens  of  Russia,  about  the 
Russian  Revolution,  will  give  me  a  certain  mysterious  power  to  pene- 
trate into  your  hearts  and  will  enable  me  to  reach  your  souls. 

We,  Italians,  have  always  loved  you  for  your  suffering,  for  the 
untold  martyrdom  you  have  been  enduring  on  your  road  to  freedom. 
We  love  you  for  the  great  deed  you  have  accomplished.  We  love  you  as 
brothers  for  having  lit  the  beacon  which  is  illumining  our  darkest 
days  and  showing  the  weary  wanderers  of  Europe  a  peaceful  haven, 
the  ideal  of  universal  brotherhood. 

To  create  spiritual  values  in  your  beautiful  language,  to  follow 
the  magnanimous  genius  of  your  race,  to  work  in  accord  with  the 
natural  aspirations  of  your  soul — this  is  to  be  your  share  of  the  work 
in  the  family  of  nations. 

But,  citizens,  you  have  created  this  free  country  not  for  your- 
selves alone.  You  have  gained  freedom  for  all  your  brothers  the 
world  over.  National  thought,  national  ideas,  national  experience 
must  serve  not  only  the  country  where  the  thought  has  originated, 
where  the  idea  has  been  born  or  the  experience  gained, — these  are 
contributions  to  the  common  treasury  of  mankind. 

'Is  it  not  true,  friends,  that  if  one  link  is  torn  in  the  great  chain 
of  the  human  family,  then  the  entire  chain  inevitably  falls  apart? 
One  link  is  a  small  thing.  But  just  break  one  link  of  a  chain,  and 
the  entire  chain  ceases  to  serve  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  destined. 
Every  man,  who,  while  fully  respecting  the  patriotism  of  other  na- 
tions, at  the  same  time  defends  his  country,  defends  the  cultural 
values  for  which  it  stands,  is  working  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
just  as  one  of  the  links  of  the  chain  contributes  to  the  strength  of 
the  chain.  But  every  individual  and  every  nation  striving  to  deprive 
other  individuals  or  peoples  of  their  cultural  or  political  independence, 
commits  a  crime  not  only  against  one  particular  nation,  but  against 
mankind  as  a  whole. 

To  resist  such  a  man  or  such  a  nation  is  the  sacred  .duty  of  each 
and  every  one  of  us  towards  mankind  as  a  whole.  That  is  why, 
citizens,  we  are  rejoicing  and  celebrating  together  with  you  the 
downfall  of  Tzarism.  You  have  killed  Tzarism  not  only  for  your- 
selves, but  for  entire  Europe.  The  conspiracies  of  monarchs,  as  long  as 
Russian  Tzarism  was  in  existence,  transformed  Europe  into  a  prison. 
The  overthrow  of  Russian  Tzarism  marks  the  beginning  of  the  re- 
publican era  throughout  Europe. 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  363 


Proud  of  her  victories  won  in  1866  and  1870,  blinded  by  the 
magnitude  of  her  scientific  and  industrial  progress  and  by  the  enor- 
mous riches  amassed  through  the  systematic  labor  of  the  German 
people,  Germany  has  been  carried  away  by  the  mad  dream  of  spreading 
the  network  of  her  domination  throughout  Europe.  The  commercial 
supremacy  of  Germany  has  practically  made  other  countries  her  terri- 
tories, from  an  economic  standpoint;  the  widening  of  Germany's 
intellectual  influence  has  been  directed  towards  effacing  the  national 
peculiarities  of  other  nations;  the  gigantic  military  power  of  Germany 
has  been  constantly  threatening  the  independence  of  these  nations. 
If  the  German  dream  were  realized,  all  Europe  would  be  Germanized, 
and  every  trace  of  national  originality  blotted  out  in  Europe. 

That  is  why  in  July,  1914,  and  in  May,  1915,  the  vast  majority  of 
the  Italian  Democracy  realized  the  danger  it  faced:  the  victory  of 
German  militarism  means  the  enslavement  of  entire  Europe.  Then 
the  vast  majority  of  the  Italian  Democracy  demanded  that  Italy  join 
the  Republic  of  France  and  the  liberty-loving  people  of  England. 

And  soon  struck  the  momentous  hour  about  which  I  want  to 
remind  you.  In  May  and  July,  1915,  the  Russian  soldiers,  all  their 
bravery  notwithstanding,  were  compelled  to  retreat  under  the  on- 
slaught of  the  German  troops,  and  to  evacuate  Poland.  What  would 
have  happened  then  if  the  Allies  had  been  left  without  support? 
Perhaps  Mackensen's  and  Hindenburg's  troops  would  have  joined 
hands  in  Petrograd  and  Moscow.  A  still  larger  part  of  Russia  would 
have  been  occupied  by  the  Germans,  and  your  emancipation  would 
have  been  attended  with  even  more  difficulties.  The  Italian  offensive 
checked  Hindenburg's  advance.  You  nobly  repaid  this  debt  you 
were  in  honor  bound  to  pay,  when  the  following  year,  through 
Brusilov's  offensive,  you  helped  us  to  repulse  the  Austrian  troops. 
Your  aid  saved  many  thousands  of  Italians  from  Austrian  bondage. 
The  soldiers  of  Russia  and  the  soldiers  of  Italy  have  thus  entered 
into  a  new  brotherly  alliance,  and  these  bonds  of  brotherhood  are 
keenly  felt  by  our  people. 

Now,  after  three  years  of  tremendous  sacrifices,  the  question 
before  us  is  how  to  bring  the  war  to  its  natural  end.  Those 
unjust  and  vicious  conditions  which  for  centuries  have  promoted 
wars  of  conquest  and  militaristic  aggression,  and  made  necessary 
secret  diplomacy  for  the  benefit  of  dynasties  oppressing  the  masses, — 
those  conditions  must  be  eradicated.  Poland  must  have  her  inde- 
pendence restored,  France  must  receive  Alsace-Lorraine,  Italy — 
Trentino,  Triest  and  Zarah,  a  reward  fully  deserved  by  the  long 
martyrdom  of  the  Italian  people,  at  one  time  rent  asunder  through 
dynastic  annexations.  Belgium,  Serbia,  Roumania  must  be  restored 
in  accordance  with  their  aspirations.  Historic  justice  and  moral  obli- 
gation demand  it. 


364  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

In  the  name  of  the  great  spirit  of  justice  which  is  animating  the 
Revolution,  the  free  people  of  Russia  will, — I  am  certain  of  this, — 
come  to  the  rescue  of  all  the  nations  striving  for  their  national  in- 
tegrity, and  will  help  to  realize  the  great  dream  of  universal  justice, 
for  the  sake  of  which  you,  too,  have  suffered  so  much." 

Albert  Thomas,  the  French  Socialist  leader  and  at  that  time 
Minister  of  Munitions  in  the  French  Cabinet,  arrived  in  Petro- 
grad  in  the  middle  of  April  and  spent  two  months  in  Russia 
meeting  Russian  political  leaders,  addressing  large  meetings 
and  issuing  statements  to  the  press.  On  May  21,  in  Moscow, 
he  addressed  a  conference  of  the  Executive  Committees  of 
the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  and  this 
address  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  most  important 
addresses  delivered  in  Russia  by  the  French  Socialist  leader. 

Thomas  spoke  about  his  participation  at  the  Conference 
of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates and  about  the  problems  connected  with  the  International 
Socialist  Conference. 

"When  the  initiative  was  taken  by  Borgbyer,"  said  Thomas,  "the 
French  and  English  Socialists  wanted  to  refrain  from  participation 
in  the  Conference.  But  when  this  matter  was  taken  up  by  the 
Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  the  French 
and  English  Socialists  changed  their  attitude.  And  now  I  wish 
to  bring  to  France  not  only  greetings  from  the  Russian  comrades, 
but  also  concrete  plans  which  must  be  presented  at  the  International 
Conference." 

His  purpose  in  coming  to  Russia,  Albert  Thomas  explained 
in  the  following  words : 

"On  the  one  hand,  I  want  the  French  to  have  a  clear  conception 
of  the  Russian  situation.  My  second  task  is  to  ask  and  demand 
of  the  Russian  Socialists  that  they  try  to  understand  us.  I  am  not 
very  much  embarrassed  when  I  find  that  I  am  being  attacked  by 
one  or  another  part  of  the  proletariat.  These  things  are  bouifd 
to  occur  in  politics.  But  I  want  to  ask  my  Russian  comrades  wherein 
is  the  difference  between  their  point  of  view  and  that  of  the  French 
Socialists?  I  would  like  to  make  our  position  clear  to  the  Russian 
comrades,  so  that  we  may  come  to  an  understanding.  I  shall  first 
of  all  speak  of  the  friendly  agreement  at  which  we  arrived  at  the 
Petrograd  Conference.  We  shall  carry  on  a  campaign  for  the  calling 
of  an  International  Conference.  And  you,  as  well  as  we,  are  now 
confronted  with  the  definite  problem  of  preparing  the  ground  for  it. 
Over  in   France  we  have,  like  the   Petrograd   Council   of  Workmen's 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  365 

and  Soldiers'  Delegates  here,  commenced  the  fight  for  the  principles 
proclaimed  in  the  appeal  'To  the  Peoples  of  the  World,' — the  struggle 
against  international  capitalism.  This  I  state  without  hesitation. 
But  I  say  in  just  as  unmistakable  terms  that  there  is  no  way 
of  fighting  for  the  Internationale,  if  the  Russian  Army  does  not  help 
France.  (Boisterous  applause.) 

In  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee,  Rosenblum 
answered  Thomas : 

"Our  Revolution  is  a  revolution  not  only  against  autocracy  and 
Tzarism,  but  also  against  war.  Two  weeks  after  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution,  the  Russian  proletariat  addressed  the  well-known  appeal 
to  the  peoples  of  the  world  and  has  with  the  greatest  anxiety 
waited  to  hear  how  the  other  Democracies  would  respond  to  it.  We 
were  deeply  hurt  when  we  received  no  proper  answer  to  our  appeal. 

We  are  waiting  for  the  Socialists  of  the  Allied  countries  to  join 
us  in  our  appeal.  The  Russian  Socialists  never  stood  for  a  separate 
peace.  They  only  demanded  that  the  Russian  soldier  should  know 
for  whom  he  is  fighting,  that  the  Russian  soldier  should  know  that 
he  is  not  shedding  his  blood  in  the  interests  of  imperialism,  or  in  the 
interests  of  the  Russian  or  the  Allied  bourgeoisie,  but  for  the  cause 
of  universal  peace,  for  the  free  self-determination  of  nationalities. 
Hence  it  is  clear  that  the  coming  Socialist  Conference  will  be  the  first 
step  in  the  struggle  for  such  a  peace.  This  struggle  will  resurrect  the 
Internationale.  We  hail  your  consent  to  attend  the  conference.  You 
must  begin  in  France  that  campaign  which  we  are  carrying  on  in 
Russia,  voicing  the  slogans:  'Peace  without  annexations  or  contribu- 
tions,' 'Peace  on  the  basis  of  the  self-determination  of  nationalities.' 
The  democratic  elements  of  the  Western  countries  must  join  us  in 
accepting  these   slogans." 

In  his  answer,  Albert  Thomas  expressed  his  pleasure  at  the 
fact  that  the  Russian  comrades  had  at  last  tackled  the  very 
crux  of  the  question  : 

"If  the  Russian  Revolution  is  a  revolution  not  only  against  the 
Tzar  but  against  war  as  well,"  Thomas  exclaimed,  "then  it  is  essential 
to  know  what  its  ultimate  aims  are!  If  you  are  talking  about  peace 
at  any  price,  then  it  is  unacceptable  to  me.  In  Russia  it  is  being 
stated  definitely  that  a  separate  peace  is  impossible,  that  peace  can  be 
concluded  only  by  means  of  general  diplomatic  negotiations.  But  it  is 
possible  to  attain  the  same  situation  without  starting  peace  negotia- 
tions. If  the  military  situation  remains  unchanged  for  a  very  long 
time,  then  that  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  separate  peace." 

Passing  to  the  slogan  "Peace  without  annexations  and  with- 
out indemnities,"  Albert  Thomas  asked:    "Would  the  restora- 


366  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

tion  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  France  be  considered  an  an- 
nexation?" He  declared  that  for  over  40  years  the  population 
of  these  Provinces,  torn  away  from  France,  has  not  ceased 
expressing  their  desire  to  be  again  part  of  France: 

"Prior  to  the  war,"  said  Thomas,  "we  never  demanded  the  annexa- 
tion of  Alsace-Lorarine  by  force  of  arms.  We  considered  it  possible 
to  attain  this  aim  by  means  of  peaceful  development,  by  fraternity 
and  justice.  The  chauvinists  have  subjected  us  to  ridicule  and  insult 
for  this  very  reason.  We  never  stood  for  the  solution  of  this  problem 
by  means  of  bloodshed.  (Applause.)  But  the  day  Germany  declared 
war.  we  said  firmly:  'The  question  has  been  raised  in  all  its  fullness. 
It  demands  a  solution.'  The  question  of  annexation  is  frequently 
discussed  in  connection  with  a  plebiscite.  But  as  regards  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  this  solution  will  be  inadequate,  as  Germany  has  flooded 
those  Provinces  with  German  peasants  and  officials.  At  the  same  time 
many  natives,  not  wanting  to  serve  in  the  German  Army,  have 
emigrated  to  France  to  serve  in  the  French  Army.  A  plebiscite 
under  such  circumstances  is  liable  not  to  voice  the  real  desire  of  the 
people  of  the  Provinces.  We  wish  that  the  annexation  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  be  made  with  the  consent  of  the  people.  I  would  be  a  traitor 
to  my  country  if  I  were  to  vote  for  a  formula  which  would  allow  the 
Prussian  immigrants  to  suppress  the  desires  of  the  people  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine. 

I  do  not  wish  to  touch  upon  any  other  pressing  problems;  I  shall 
not  discuss  the  question  of  indemnities  which  we,  Frenchmen,  under- 
stand not  as  a  contribution  but  as  a  means  of  restoring  our  losses. 
I  shall  stop  to  consider  the  question  of  the  right  of  every  nationality 
to  work  out  its  own  destiny.  The  terms  of  peace  must  be  such  that 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  will  be  able  to  freely  determine  their  own  fate. 
On  this  question  we  differ  radically  from  the  Germans.  Germany 
understands  this  principle  of  self-determination  in  the  sense  of  alter- 
ing the  boundaries  and  returning  us  a  number  of  villages.  On  such 
terms  we  cannot  make  peace. 

But  if  Gemrany  accepts  out  point  of  view,  then  we  can  participate 
in  an  international  conference.  If,  however,  another  trend  of  thought 
will  prevail  at  that  conference,  if  the  right  of  self-determination 
will  be  denied  Poland  and  Alsace-Lorraine,  then  this  conference  will 
be  merely  a  trap." 

Rosenblum  replied  by  pointing  out  that  in  describing  the 
Russian  Revolution  as  a  revolution  against  Tzarism  and  in 
favor  of  universal  peace,  he  did  not  mean  that  the  Russian 
Socialists  wanted  peace  at  any  price. 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  367 


"Russia  does  not  think  of  peace  in  any  other  way  except  as  a 
universal  peace.  Comrade  Thomas  called  attention  to-  the  practical 
standstill  at  the  front  in  April.  This  was  probably  not  only  your 
misfortune,  but  also  ours.  This  is  an  uncontrollable  phenomenon 
and  it  is  of  a  temporary  nature.  The  new  Coalition  Government  has 
firmly  proclaimed  the  necessity  for  restoring  the  fighting  capacity  of 
the  Army,  and  Comrade  Thomas  had  better  not  say  that  the  in- 
activity of  the  Russian  Army  is  one  of  the  aims  of  the  Russian 
Revolution." 

After  Rosenblum,  the  representative  of  the  Bolsheviki, 
Noggin,  spoke.  He  asserted  that  the  Russian  soldiers  were 
tired  out.  that  more  of  them  were  dying  of  hunger  than  of 
the  enemy's  bullets.  "If  the  war  is  continued,  then  the  coun- 
try, which  is  war  weary,  is  threatened  with  internal  disruption. 
It  will  therefore  never  do  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  actual  condi- 
tions, and  we  must  not  say  that  the  disintegration  of  the  Army 
is  merely  accidental." 

Albert  Thomas  again  took  the  floor.  He  called  attention  to 
the  startling  contradictions  between  the  statements  made  by 
Rosenblum  and  Nogin  regarding-  the  causes  of  the  standstill 
at  the  front : 

''The  last  speaker's  statement  that  the  Russian  Army  is  tired," 
said  Thomas,  "is  of  very  great  significance  for  me.  If  this  is  so, 
then  the  entire  burden  of  the  war  will  fall  upon  France.  I  have  heard 
two  entirely  different  opinions  and  would  like  to  know  which  is 
shared  by  the  majority.  If  you  claim  that  the  Russian  Army  is  war- 
weary.  I  would  say  that  the  Armies  of  the  Allies  have  also  suffered 
great  losses,  but  still  they  continue  to  fight.  I  personally  believe 
that  no  matter  how  tired  the  Russian  Army  is.  it  will  find  strength 
to  wage  the  struggle  with  renewed  effort.  I  know  that  the  old 
regime  has  left  you  a  ruined  and  ravished  estate.  But  where  is  the 
strength  of  the  Russian  Revolution  if  it  is  unable  to  improve  upon 
the  old!" 

On  the  previous  day  Albert  Thomas  addressed  a  large  meet- 
ing of  officers,  in  Moscow.  The  Vice-Chairman  of  the  meeting. 
Gen.  Prince  S.  A.  Droutskoy.  in  an  enthusiastic  speech, 
greeted  Albert  Thomas  as  the  democratic  Minister  of  free 
France. 

"In  the  name  of  the  great  and  free  Russian  Army,  in  the  name  of 
the  officers  and  Army  officials  of  the  Moscow  Garrison."  said  Prince 
S.  A.  Droutskoy,  "I  greet  you.  as  the  Minister  of  our  gallant  and 
noble  Allv.  France. 


368  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


We  declare,  and  you  may  well  believe  our  assertion,  that  our 
Army  will  be  able  to  do  its  duty  towards  the  country  and  towards 
our  glorious  Allies,  who  are  fighting  even  as  we  are  for  the  freedom 
of  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Our  bloodless  Revolution,  the  first  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
has  not  weakened  us.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  increased  our  powers 
for  creating  and  safeguarding  the  happiness  and  progress  of  free 
peoples. 

Our  united  Armies  will  be  able  to  properly  solve  this  problem. 
Long  live  the  gallant  French  Army!  Long  live  our  Allies!'' 

Albert  Thomas  responded  with  the  following  speech  : 

"Officers  of  the  Moscow  Garrison:  I  have  listened  with  the  great- 
est pleasure  to  your  greetings.  As  the  Chief  of  the  War-Technical 
Department,  I  wish,  in  my  turn,  to  greet  the  free  Army  of  Revolu- 
tionary Russia,  in  the  name  of  the  French  Army.    (Applause.) 

We  are  also  familiar  with  revolutionary  times.  Our  Army  also 
knows  what  it  means  to  pass  through  the  indecision  and  confusion 
of  a  similar  period.  But  the  soldiers  and  workers  of  France  decided 
this  question  by  one  mighty  stroke  in  1792. 

In  the  French  Revolutionary  Army  which  fought  at  Valmi,  the 
officers  of  the  old  regime,  inspired  by  the  new  breath  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, led  the  troops  of  liberated  France  to  victory,  side  by  side  with 
the  young  revolutionary  officers.  In  the  hope  of  a  similar  union,  I 
am  greeting  you  to-day,  officers  of  the  Moscow  Garrison. 

Of  course.  I  understand  what  anxiety  sometimes  creeps  into  your 
hearts.  Of  course,  I  realize  how  much  energy,  how  much  will  power 
is  required  in  order  to  adapt  yourselves  to  the  new  conditions,  in 
order  to  understand  the  bitterness  which  sometimes  arises  in  the 
hearts  of  your  soldiers,  those  very  same  soldiers  who  have  for  so 
many  years  been  suppressed  by  the  old  regime.  But  I  have  faith  in 
your  mind  and  will.  I  trust  that  through  a  proper  understanding 
of  the  demands  of  the  Revolutionary  Army,  you  will  soon  lead  the 
Revolutionary  Army  to  victor}',  for  the  sake  of  Russia's  honor,  for 
the  sake  of  the  Allies'  honor.  (Applause.) 

Officers  of  the  Moscow  Garrison:  We  are  counting  on  you,  we 
are  waiting  impatiently,  sometimes  anxiously,  for  the  Russian  Army 
to  wage  a  new  offensive.  It  cannot  be  unknown  to  you  that  the 
Germans  have  massed  their  forces  on  our  front.  Our  Army  and  the 
English  Army,  united,  will  halt. — you  may  rest  assured, — the  German 
onslaught.  They  will  halt  it  in  order  to  enable  you  to  come  to  our 
aid  in  time.  Think  of  it.  never  in  the  course  of  the  war  was  there 
a  moment  which  could  be  compared  to  the  present!  Never  were 
conditions  better  for  fighting  and  winning  the  war.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary that  the  Russian  Army  arrive  in  time.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
Russian  Army  arrive  when  the  French  and  British  Armies  are  engaged 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  369 


in  the  decisive  struggle.  The  Russian  Army  must  arrive  before  the 
enemy  has  a  chance  to  replenish  his  supplies  through  the  new  crop. — 
we  must,  by  our  united  effort,  crush  Prussian  militarism  during  the 
coming  summer.     I  am  seeking  assurance  here  and  I  am  finding  it. 

I  thank  you,  General,  for  your  statement  that  the  Russian  Army 
will  do  its  duty  towards  the  country,  the  Allies  and  Russia's  liberty. 
We  are  sure  that  Russia  is  waging  her  struggle  for  freedom  not  only 
by  demonstrations  in  the  streets  of  Moscow  and  Petrograd.  but  also 
on  the  front. 

There  will  be  no  freedom  for  Russia,  there  will  be  no  freedom  for 
any  people  in  the  world  as  long  as  the  Hohenzollern  heel  is  able  to 
crush  any  nation.  There  will  be  no  freedom  in  this  world  until 
Democracy  will  prevail  everywhere. 

Socialists  of  the  Russian  Army!  Officers  of  the  Russian  Army! 
You  will  help  the  cause  of  liberty.  You  will  help  the  Democracy  of 
all  countries  to  gain  more  strength.  Long  live  Free  Russia!  Long 
live  the  free  Army  of  Revolutionary  Russia!" 

That  same  day  Albert  Thomas  addressed  the  general  meet- 
ing of  the  Moscow  Council  of  Soldiers'  Delegates.  His  appear- 
ance at  this  meeting  was  the  signal  for  enthusiastic  and  pro- 
longed applause : 

"Comrades."  Thomas  began.  "I  am  happy  that  on  the  first  day  of 
my  arrival  in  Moscow  I  have  the  opportunity  of  conveying  the  fra- 
ternal greetings  of  the  French  soldiers  to  you,  soldiers  of  Russia. 
(Shouts:  "Bravo!  Hurrah!"    Boisterous  applause.) 

We  who  are  living  in  the  Far  West  have  long  known  how  the 
Russian  soldier  can  conquer  or  die;  we  know  how,  when  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  there  was  a  shortage  of  ammunition,  he  parried 
the  blows  of  Prussian  militarism  with  his  bare  hands.  (Boisterous 
applause.) 

We  know  that  those  relations  which  have  been  established  in 
free  Russia  between  the  revolutionary  troops  and  the  workmen  have 
welded  them  into  one  whole  and  enabled  them  to  overthrow  the  old 
regime.  We.  Frenchmen,  are  especially  pleased  to  note  that  in  your 
country,  as  well  as  in  ours,  the  Revolution  was  made  by  the  Revolu- 
tionary Army  and  the  people,  who.  together,  constitute  one  whole." 

Albert  Thomas  then  turned  to  the  question  of  discipline : 
"A  Revolutionary  Army  must  have  revolutionary  discipline,  that 
is,  discipline  based  not  on  fear,  but  on  the  clear  and  definite  realiza- 
tion of  one's  duty.  If  under  the  old  regime  the  soldiers  obeyed 
the  officers  for  fear  of  being  punished,  then  now  orders  should  lie 
executed  voluntarily,  because  everybody  knows  now  the  aim  which 
Free  Russia  and  her  Allies  are  pursuing. 


370  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


At  the  present  moment  we  are  expecting  support  from  you,  from 
the  Revolutionary  Army,  for  just  at  present  hundreds  of  German 
regiments  and  battalions  are  massed  against  the  French  troops.  We, 
Frenchmen,  are  now  very  much  concerned  with  the  question  of  the 
Russian  troops  rendering  support  to  the  French  Army. 

I  listened  carefully  to  Comrade  Kerensky's  apeal  to  the  Russian 
Army  in  Petrograd.  Comrade  Kerensky  stated  that  the  country  was 
in  danger.  This  is  the  very  same  slogan  that  was  sounded  in  France 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  war.  And  we,  also,  heard  that  said  by 
a  Socialist-Minister.  In  response  to  his  call,  bourgeoisie  and  prole- 
tariat rushed  to  the  frontiers,  where,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  they  fight 
to  defend  their  country  and  their  liberty  from  the  Germans. 

By  repelling  the  German  hordes,"  Thomas  concluded,  "the  Russian 
Army  will  save  the  country  and  the  newly-won  Russian  liberty." 

After  a  two  months'  stay  in  Russia,  Albert  Thomas,  in  his 
final  interview,  thus  voiced  his  impressions  : 

"I  came  from  France  full  of  faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  the 
Russian  Revolution  and  in  its  beneficial  results  for  the  common 
cause  of  the  Allies.  I  was  not  perturbed  by  the  rumors  reaching  us, 
that  along  with  the  change  in  Government,  a  change  in  the  opinion 
regarding  the  war  had  apparently  also  taken  place  in  several  classes  of 
Russian  society.  During  my  two  months'  stay  in  your  country,  I 
have  seen  and  heard  a  great  deal,  and  now  I  am  leaving  permeated 
with  the  very  same  faith  that  I  had  on  my  departure  from  France. 
I  do  not  close  my  eyes  to  the  difficulties  you  will  have  to  overcome, 
together  with  the  Allies  closely  united  with  Russia.  I  harbor  no 
illusions  as  to  the  near  future,  and  foresee  all  the  obstacles  which  we 
will  have  to  encounter  before  reaching  the  final  goal.  The  last  days, 
however,  have  convinced  me  that  means  and  ways  for  an  agreement 
between  the  Russian  democrats  and  the  democracy  of  the  Allied 
countries  are  being  already  devised  and  that  the  discord  existing 
between  them  at  present  will  soon  vanish  entirely. 

The  coalition  Ministry  is  evidently  deeply  rooted  in  the  coun- 
try, and  the  idea  of  forming  a  Cabinet  of  similar  political  aspira- 
tions, which  at  this  time  could  be  socialistic  only,  does  not  meet  with 
sympathy  in  political  circles.  Of  this  I  have  become  convinced  from 
my  interviews  with  prominent  representatives  of  political  parties. 

Tlie  war  problem  is  also  near  solution,  but  here  some  pressure 
must  be  brought,  and  that  as  soon  as  possible.  It  is  indispensable  to 
put  an  end  to  the  separate  truce,  and  to  show  the  enemy  that  the 
Russian  Army  represents  a  formidable  power,  to  be  reckoned  with. 
Leaving  Petrograd,  I  carry  away  the  conviction  that  on  the  question 
of  war  some  progress  has  been  made  in  the  attitude  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  extreme  radical  factions  of  Russian  Socialism.  If, 
on   the   one   hand,   the   notes   of   the    Allies,    replying   to   the   Russian 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  371 


note  in  regard  to  the  war  aims,  show  deviation  from  the  formerly 
repeatedly  expressed  readiness  to  concede  to  the  formulas  announced 
hy  the  Russian  Democracy,  then,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Russian 
democrats  are  also  apparently  inclined  to  compromise  somewhat  on 
the  previously  announced  formulas.  In  short,  one  may  speak  of  the 
harmony  existing  at  present  between  the  Allies  and  Russia. 

Thus,  during  my  stay  in  Russia,  the  Allies  scored  a  diplomatic 
victory  in  that  they  have  reconciled  the  Socialists  of  France  with 
those  of  Russia.  I  am  convinced  that  as  soon  as  complete  agreement 
between  us  and  the  Russian  Socialists  is  reached,  the  problem  of 
war  will  be  solved  immediately,  and  we  will  approach  the  era  of 
peace. 

Our  sole  aim  should  be  the  struggle  against  German  imperialism, 
and  to  that  end  an  energetic  continuation  of  this  war  and  unity 
between  the  Allies  are  also  imperative.  I  am  leaving  with  a  new 
faith  that  this  unity  is  not  far  off." 


OX  June  9th,  Arthur  Henderson,  the  British  Minister  of 
Labor,  delivered  a  speech  on  the  question  of  war  and 
peace  before  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 

"To  my  share."  Henderson  began,  "has  fallen  the  great  honor  of 
conveying  the  heart-felt  greetings  from  the  British  labor  and  Socialist 
movements  to  the  free  Russian  Democracy,  I  have  come  to  the 
Russian  Democracy  at  an  historical  moment  and  it  is  with  the  greatest 
joy  that  I  am  ready  to  shake  hands  with  the  representatives  of  free 
"Russia,  for  I  hope  that  the  Democracies  of  Russia  and  Great  Britain 
will  remain  friends  forever.  I  can  assure  you  that  the  proletariat  of 
Great  Britain  is  ready  to  serve  the  Russian  Democracy  in  every  pos- 
sible way.  We  fully  realize  the  tremendous  importance  of  the  change 
which  has  taken  place  in  Russia  due  to  the  overthrow  of  the  old 
autocracy.  What  you  have  done  has  no  precedent  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  for  never  has  there  been  a  revolution  so  complete  and  at 
the  same  time  so  bloodless.  It  is  highly  important  that  this  internal 
triumph  of  the  Democracy  which  has  been  attained  in  Russia,  should 
be  firmly  established  and  become  permanent,  for  this  newly-gained 
liberty  has  been  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  of 
lasting  peace  among  the  nations. of  the  world.  Such  a  peace  would 
be  in  full  accord  with  the  ideals  of  free  democracy.  Every  effort 
must  be  made  to  avert  the  possibility  of  peace  terms  being  dictated 
by  military  despots  irresponsible  to  the  democracy. 

Since  the  day  of  my  arrival  in  Petrograd  I  have  been  constantly 
besieged  with  questions  about  the  attitude  of  the  British  proletariat 
towards  the  present  war.     In  the  first  place,  I  would  like -to  emphasize 


372  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


the  fact  that  the  English  working  class  has  decisively  opposed  this 
war  and  has  been  fighting  to  the  last  for  the  preservation  of  peace. 
Even  when  the  Russians  were  anxiously  asking  why  the  British  do 
not  come  to  the  rescue  of  their  country,  the  British  proletariat  still 
remained  in  the  same  position  of  inertia.  This  attitude  changed  only 
when  Belgium's  neutrality  was  violated  and  when  it  became  certain 
that  Germany  and  Austria  were  striving  to  attain  the  hegemony  in 
Europe  and  throughout  the  world,  and  when  the  German  Social- 
Democrats  voted  the  war  budgets  in  the  Reichstag. 

The  English  workers  are  fighting  only  in  order  to  defend  their 
country  and  to  compel  the  foe  to  respect  international  treaties.  Of 
course,  they  are  striving  for  peace,  but  such  a  peace  as  would  be 
capable  of  securing  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  nations  of  the 
world  and  which  would  eradicate  all  lawful  causes  for  future  wars. 
The  workers  of  England  are  therefore  opposed  to  any  peace  treaties 
that  would  establish  the  domination  of  one  nation  over  another,  the 
appropriation  of  national  wealth  or  forcible  annexation  of  foreign 
territory.  Together  with  their  Russian  comrades,  they  proclaim  that 
peace  must  be  concluded  on  the  principles  of  no  annexation,  no  in- 
demnities and  the  right  of  every  nation  to  work  out  its  own  destiny. 

In  accordance  with  a  similar  point  of  view,  the  peace  treaty  must 
pursue  the  object  of  establishing  the  unity,  the  independence,  the 
autonomy,  safety  and  liberty  of  all  nations,  great  and  small.  The 
Polish  question,  the  question  of  a  united  independent  Poland  must 
be  solved  in  accordance  with  the  wish  of  the  Polish  people.  The 
complete  restoration  of  Belgium  as  an  independent  State  must  lie 
guaranteed  unconditionally.  Further,  in  the  interests  of  preserving 
future  peace,  the  population  of  Mesopotamia  and  Africa  must  be 
freed  from  the  yoke  of  Turkish  or  German  rule,  even  if  it  has  to  be 
done  through  special  international  committees.  Important  reforms 
are  also  to  be  introduced  into  Turkey  in  the  interests  of  the  Armenian 
and  Arabian  populations.  Constantinople,  if  possible,  must  be  trans- 
formed into  a  free  port,  and  the  Dardanelles  internationalized.  Ways 
and  means  of  a  more  satisfactory  and  stable  solution  of  the  Balkan 
problem  must  be  found.  All  are  probably  inclined  to  think  that  in 
the  Balkans  a  political  understanding  could  be  arrived  at  which  would 
safeguard  peace  and  mutual  good  will  among  the  various  nationalities. 

We  must  endeavor  to  destroy  all  that  stands  in  the  way  of  national 
and  international  development  on  the  principles  of  social  progress. 
We  are  aspiring  to  establish  a  family  of  free  nations,  each  of  which 
must  have  ample  opportunity  for  independent  development  of  its 
powers, — nations  competing  with  each  other  in  the  progress  of 
knowledge,  education,  and  social  welfare.  We  must  make  an  effort 
to  create  neighborly  relations  among  all  nations,  in  order  to  abolish 
all  fear  of  attack  or  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  more  ambitious  and 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  373 


more  powerful  towards  the  weaker.  Such  a  family  of  free  nations 
would  be  capable  of  recognizing'  and  carrying  into  practice  the 
principles  of  arbitration.  The  apparatus  necessary  for  the  application 
of  the  above-mentioned  principle  to  international  disputes  must  be- 
come   a   permanent    institution. 

I  would  not  like  to  see  my  speech  misinterpreted,  for  the  conse- 
quences of  such  a  misunderstanding  might  be  extremely  grave  and 
even  dangerous  to  the  future  of  civilization.  The  British  proletariat, 
of  course,  wants  a  peace  and  will  hail  peace.  But  this  must  be  an 
honorable  peace!  This  must  be  a  lasting  peace!  This  must  be  a  peace 
that  would  prevent  any  domination  of  brute  force  in  the  future! 
Bergson  said:  'We  must  live  not  on  the  strength  of  the  ideal  of 
power,  but  of  the  power  of  ideals.'  These  are  the  factors  which  have 
made  the  proletariat  of  Britain  come  out  in  favor  of  war  in  1914. 
These  are  the  ideals  which  inspired  the  proletariat  of  England  in  1914. 
and  to  which  he  must  remain  true  in  1917  since  they  have  been  conse- 
crated by  the  blood  of  the  sons  of  England." 

On  June  28th,  speaking  before  the  English  colony  in  Mos- 
cow. Arthur  Henderson  said  : 

We  are  fighting  because  the  freedom  of  the  world  and  the 
safety  of  our  Allies  have  not  been  made  secure  as  yet.  As  re- 
gards Russia,  we  are  glad  that  she  has  entered  into  the  family  of 
free  nations  and  is  taking  her  first  steps  on  the  road  to  freedom. 
She  is  now  more  closely  than  ever  bound  up  with  the  great 
Democracies  which  are  taking  part  in  the  war  of  liberation.  Of  all 
the  marvelous  things  that  occurred  during  this  war,  there  is  nothing 
more  marvelous  than  the  Russian  Revolution.  Long  has  the  great 
nation  suffered  from  the  incompetence  of  its  rulers,  but  when  its 
patience  was  exhausted,  the  nation  rose  like  one  man. 

"I  may  assure  the  Russian  people  that  the  Government  and  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  have  all  the  confience  in  Russia  and  will 
remain  true  to  their  Allies  until  the  end  of  the  great  unfinished 
struggle  for  their  liberation.  Realizing  the  very  difficult  situation 
in  which  Russia  now  finds  herself,  I  will  not  join  the  critics  whom  I 
have  often  heard.  I  shall  just  say  that  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain  will  render  the  Russian  Government  all  help  possible — finan- 
cial, economic  and  moral  support,  and  will  render  this  with  the 
greatest   readiness. 

The  British  Government  has  already  done  much.  I  have  some 
definite  data  which  I  wish  to  present  to  the  Russian  people. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  British  Government  has  helped 
the  Russian  Government  financially  to  the  extent  of  not  less  than 
500,000,000  pounds  (sterling).  England  has  supplied  Russia  with  foot- 
wear worth  millions  of  pounds  and  clothing  worth  hundreds  of 
millions.     Of  war  material   England  has   sent  to  Russia:  over   150.000 


374  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


tons  of  metal,  over  500  aeroplane  engines,  over  700  cannon  and 
long-distance  guns,  ammunition  and  accessories  worth  from  3  to  4 
million,  300,000  rifles,  2,500  machine  guns,  over  a  thousand  million  of 
cartridges  and  thousands  of  automobiles  and  auto-trucks. 

If  the  Russians  will  consider  these  figures  as  well  as  the  quantity 
of  tonnage  used  up  for  the  transportation  of  this  freight  while  every 
ton  was  needed  for  ourselves,  they  will  have  to  admit  that  England 
was  not  an  unfaithful  Ally." 

On  June  29th,  Arthur  Henderson  addressed  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Moscow  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  in  the  following-  words : 

"When  the  war  began,  we  wanted  to  remain  neutral,  but  when 
German}^  violated  Belgium's  neutrality  and  when  Russia  shouted: 
'Help  us!'  we,  as  a  Labor  Party,  decided  to  support  our  Government 
and  to  fight.  At  our  last  Congress,  which  was  held  two  and  a  half 
years  after  the  beginning  of  the  war,  we  discussed  the  question  as  to 
whether  our  attitude  towards  the  war  was  right.  A  resolution  sup- 
porting our  entrance  into  the  war  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  1,100,000 
against  348,000.  I  must  call  your  attention  to  this  vote  because  it  is 
of  great  importance  as  bearing  favorably  upon  our  present  position. 

I  must  also  point  out  that  when  the  war  broke  out,  we  were  not 
an  imperialistic  nation.  We  could  not  send  to  France  more  than  an 
expeditionary  force  of  100,000  men.  We  had  to  organize  an  Army 
of  5,000,000  volunteers.  Tens  of  thousands  of  these  were  trades- 
unionists.  Many  of  them  are  still  in  the  trenches  on  the  French 
front.  In  addition  to  these  Armies,  we  have  received  aid  from  Canada, 
India  and  New  Zealand. 

How  did  it  happen  that  we  have  received  such  aid  not  only  in 
England,  but  in  the  colonies  as  well?  We  would  not  have  received 
such  aid  were  we  to  wage  a  war  of  aggression.  We  do  not  need  any 
territorial  acquisitions.  We  share  your  point  of  view:  we  want  peace 
without  annexations.  We  are  also  for  the  right  of  every  nation  to 
work  out  its  own  destiny.  That  is  why  we  received  so  much  of  the 
popular  support." 

Passing-  over  to  Russia's  domestic  affairs,  Henderson  con- 
tinued : 

"In  the  first  place,  I  must  convey  to  you  the  greetings  from  the 
British  Labor  Party.  We,  the  first  and  the  oldest  Democracy,  are 
greeting  the  Russian  Democracy,  the  youngest  in  the  family  of  na- 
tions. We  know  that  you  have  accomplished  your  Revolution  with 
great  difficulty,  and  you  have  performed  this  difficult  task  in  the 
interests  of  Democracy  the  world  over. 

Henceforth   all    the   free    Democracies    must   stand    together.      But 


The  Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Leaders  375 


there  are  other  peoples  who  are  yet  to  be  freed.  They  can  only  be 
freed  by  free  peoples.  If  we  want  to  secure  their  liberty,  we  must 
fight  and  defend  it.  If  any  one  tells  you  that  we,  English  workers, 
are  carrying  on  a  capitalistic  and  imperialistic  war,  answer:  'No, 
they  are  fighting  a  war  of  liberation.' 

What  proof  have  we  that  the  German  Government  is  going  to 
enfranchise  the  German  people?  Should  we  have  such  proof,  I  am 
sure  that  peace  will  be  concluded.  But  until  the  working  class  of 
England  receives  such  assurances,  it  will  defend  England's  freedom. 
We  have  given  our  sons  for  our  ideals,  but  not  for  a  capitalistic  and 
militaristic  war.  I  wish  that  the  friendship  between  England  and 
Russia  grows  ever  stronger  and  stronger.  We  shall  need  you  after 
the  war,  and  you  will  need  us;  therefore,  let  us  continue  the  fight 
side  by  side." 

V.  V.  Roudnev's  Speech 

V.  V.  Roudnev,  President  of  the  Moscow  Municipal  Duma 
and  Chairman  of  the  meeting,  greeted  Henderson,  as  the 
representative  of  British  labor,  in  the  name  of  the  Moscow 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 

"Comrade  Henderson  and  we  ourselves,"  said  Roudnev.  "agree  that 
the  speediest  termination  of  the  war  is  the  urgent  and  imperative 
task  now  before  the  working  class  of  all  countries.  The  Russian 
Democracy  has  in  this  war  been  placed  in  the  most  difficult  situation: 
in  the  first  place,  because  Russia  is  economically  backward  and, 
secondly,  because  having  received  a  burdensome  heritage  from  the 
old  regime,  we  are  compelled  to  reconstruct  our  economic  life  under 
the  stress  of  prolonged  warfare.  With  us.  according  to  the  prevailing 
opinion,  the  war  is  threatening  to  kill  the  Revolution  and  its  achieve- 
ments if  the  Revolution  does  not  kill  the  war  by  a  heroic  effort. 

We  would  have  been  satisfied  if  the  working  class  of  England 
were  to  draw  a  line  of  demarkation  between  its  interpretation  of  the 
slogans  of  the  war  of  liberation  and  that  of  the  imperialists.  Com- 
rade Henderson  stated  that  the  British  workers  would  attend  the 
International  Conference  only  on  condition  that  an  Interallied  Con- 
ference be  called  first.  Such  an  attitude  is  not  in  accord  either  with 
the  interests  of  the  Russian  or  international  Democracy.  We  expect 
the  working  class  of  England  to  bring  all  possible  pressure  to  bear 
on  the  imperialistic  classes,  on  the  character  of  the  policy  adopted 
by  the  English  ruling  classes.  We  would  also  like  to  see  actual  steps 
taken  by  the  English  Government  towards  the  speediest  possible 
revision  of  treaties  binding  England  and  Russia.  We  hope  that  the 
English  working  class  will  understand  the  Russian  Revolutionary 
Democracy,  its  aspiration  towards  the  speediest  possible  conclusion 
of   peace    through   the   restoration    of  international    solidarity    of    the 


376  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

working  class  and  not  by  crushing  the  enemy.  We  trust  that  the 
English  working  class  will  support  the  Russian  Democracy  in  its 
practical  steps  taken  towards  calling  a  conference, — an  undertaking 
that  is  intended  to  benefit  not  only  the  Russian  Democracy,  but  the 
Internationale." 

Henderson's  Reply- 
In    answering   Roudnev's    speech,    Henderson    said,    among 
other  things,  the  following  : 

"It  would  have  been  a  great  error  on  my  part  to  say  that  there  is 
even  a  semblance  of  understanding  between  us.  I  can  only  say  that 
we  shall  give  serious  consideration  to  the  propositions  advanced  here. 
I  think  we  shall  agree  on  one  point:  we  all  want  peace,  but  there 
is  a  difference  in  the  methods  by  means  of  which  we  would  obtain 
peace.  Your  Chairman  thinks  that  the  methods  which  we  have 
adopted  may  prolong  the  war.  But  it  would  be  of  little  avail  if  I 
were  to  try  to  prove  that  from  our  point  of  view  your  methods  will 
also  lengthen  the  war.  I  can  only  repeat  once  more:  'We  shall 
consider  this.'  " 


CHAPTER  X 
The  American  Mission  lo  Russia 

THE  news  of  the  Russian  Revolution  aroused  every- 
where", in  the  Allied  countries,  a  feeling  of  profound  joy 
and  sympathy.  Among  the  many  jubilant  expressions 
and  statements  in  those  significant  days,  the  profound  and 
powerful  statement  of  President  Wilson,  in  his  Address  to 
Congress  on  April  2,  1917,  remains  outstanding. 

"Russia  was  known  by  those  who  knew  it  best,"  said  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  "to  have  been  always  in  fact  democratic  at  heart, 
in  all  the  vital  habits  of  her  thought,  in  all  the  intimate  rela- 
tionships of  her  people  that  spoke  their  natural  instinct,  their 
habitual  attitude  towards  life.  The  autocracy  that  crowned 
the  summit  of  her  political  structure,  long  as  it  had  stood  and 
terrible  as  was  the  reality  of  its  power,  was  not  in  fact  Russian 
in  origin,  character  or  purpose ;  and  now  it  has  been  shaken  off 
and  the  great  generous  Russian  people  have  been  added  in  all 
their  naive  majesty  and  might  to  the  forces  that  are  fighting 
for  freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice  and  for  peace.  Here  is 
a  fit  partner  for  a  League  of  Honor." 

On  May  15  the  State  Department,  in  Washington,  officially 
announced  the  personnel  of  a  Special  American  Mission  to 
Russia.  Hon.  Elihu  Root,  former  Secretary  of  State,  was 
appointed  to  head  the  Mission  as  Ambassador  Extraordinary. 
As  his  associates,  with  the  rank  of  Envoys  Extraordinary,  the 
following  were  appointed  :  John  R.  Mott  of  New  York,  Charles 
P.  Crane  of  Illinois,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  of  Illinois,  Samuel 
R.  Bertron  of  New  York,  James  Duncan  of  Massachusetts, 
and  Charles  Edward  Russell  of  New  York.  Major-Gen.  Hugh 
L.  Scott,  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  United  States  Army,  was  ap- 
pointed Military  Representative  of  the  President,  and  Rear- 
Admiral  James  H.  Glennon, — Naval  Representative. 

On  May  26  President  Wilson  transmitted  a  note  to  Petro- 
grad,  the  publication  of  which  was  delayed  until  June  10. 
The  text  of  the  note  follows  : 

"In  view  of  the  approaching  visit  of  the   American   Delegation   to 
Russia   to    express    the    deep    friendship   of   the    American   people   for 


The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


the  people  of  Russia  and  to  discuss  the  hest  and  most  practical  means 
of  cooperation  between  the  two  peoples  in  carrying  the  present 
struggle  for  the  freedom  of  all  peoples  to  a  successful  consummation, 
it  seems  opportune  and  appropriate  that  I  should  state  again,  in  the 
light  of  this  new  partnership,  the  objects  the  United  States  has  had 
in  mind  in  entering  the  war.  Those  objects  have  been  very  much 
beclouded  during  the  last  few  weeks  by  mistaken  and  misleading 
statements,  and  the  issues  at  stake  are  too  momentous,  too  tremen- 
dous, too  significant  for  the  whole  human  race  to  permit  any  mis- 
interpretations or  misunderstandings,  however  slight,  to  remain  un- 
corrected for  a  moment. 

The  war  has  begun  to  go  against  Germany,  and  in  their  desperate 
desire  to  escape  the  inevitable  ultimate  defeat  those  who  are  in 
authority  in  Germany  are  using  every  possible  instrumentality,  are 
making  use  even  of  the  influence  of  groups  and  parties  among  their 
own  subjects  to  whom  they  have  never  been  just  or  fair  or  even  toler- 
ant, to  promote  a  propaganda  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  which  will 
preserve  for  them  their  influence'  at  home  and  their  power  abroad, 
to  the  undoing  of  the  very   men   they  are  using. 

The  position  of  America  in  this  war  is  so  clearly  avowed  that  no 
man  can  be  excused  for  mistaking  it.  She  seeks  no  material  profit 
or  aggrandizement  of  any  kind.  She  is  fighting  for  no  advantage  or 
selfish  object  of  her  own,  but  for  the  liberation  of  peoples  everywhere 
from  the  aggressions  of  autocratic  force.  The  ruling  classes  in 
Germany  have  begun  of  late  to  profess  a  like  liberality  and  justice 
of  purpose,  but  only  to  preserve  the  power  they  have  set  up  in  Ger- 
many and  the  selfish  advantages  which  they  have  wrongly  gained  for 
themselves  and  their  private  projects  of  power  all  the  way  from 
Berlin  to  Bagdad  and  beyond.  Government  after  Government  has 
by  their  influence,  without  open  conquest  of  its  territory,  been  linked 
together  in  a  net  of  intrigue  directed  against  nothing  less  than  the 
peace  and  liberty  of  the  world.  The  meshes  of  that  intrigue  must 
be  broken,  but  cannot  be  broken  unless  wrongs  already  done  are 
undone:  and  adequate  measures  must  be  taken  to  prevent  it  from 
ever  being  rewoven  or  repaired. 

Of  course,  the  Imperial  German  Government  and  those  whom  it 
is  using  for  their  own  undoing  are  seeking  to  obtain  pledges  that  the 
war  will  end  in  the  restoration  of  the  status  quo  ante.  It  was  the 
status  quo  ante  out  of  which  this  iniquitous  war  issued  forth,  the 
power  of  the  Imperial  German  Government  within  the  empire  and 
its  widespread  domination  and  influence  outside  of  that  empire.  That 
status  must  be  altered  in  such  fashion  as  to  prevent  any  such  hideous 
thing  from  ever  happening  again. 

We  are  fighting  for  the  liberty,  the  self-government,  and  the 
undictated  development  of  all  peoples,  and  every  feature  of  the  settle- 


The  American  Mission  to  Russia  379 


ment  that  concludes  this  war  must  be  conceived  and  executed  for 
that  purpose.  Wrongs  must  first  be  righted,  and  then  adequate 
safeguards  must  be  created  to  prevent  their  being  committed  again. 
We  ought  not  to  consider  remedies  merely  because  they  have  a 
pleasing  and  sonorous  sound.  Practical  questions  can  be  settled  only 
by  practical  means.  Phrases  will  not  accomplish  the  result.  Effective 
readjustments  will;  and  whatever  readjustments  are  necessary  must 
be  made. 

But  they  must  follow  a  principle,  and  that  principle  is  plain.  No 
people  must  be  forced  under  sovereignty  under  which  it  does  not 
wish  to  live.  No  territory  must  change  hands  except  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  those  who  inhabit  it  a  fair  chance  of  life  and  liberty. 
No  indemnities  must  be  insisted  on  except  those  that  constitute  pay- 
ment for  manifest  wrongs  done.  No  readjustments  of  power  must 
be  made  except  such  as  will  tend  to  secure  the  future  peace  of  the 
world  and  the  future  welfare  and  happiness  of  its  peoples. 

And  then  the  free  peoples  of  the  world  must  draw  together  in 
some  common  covenant,  some  genuine  and  practical  cooperation 
that  will  in  effect  combine  their  force  to  secure  peace  and  justice  in 
the  dealings  of  nations  with  one  another.  The  brotherhood  of  man- 
kind must  no  longer  be  a  fair  but  empty  phrase;  it  must  be  given  a 
structure  of  force  and  reality.  The  nations  must  realize  their  common 
life  and  effect  a  workable  partnership  to  secure  that  life  against  the 
aggressions  of  autocratic  and  self-pleasing  power. 

For  these  things  we  can  afford  to  pour  out  blood  and  treasure. 
For  these  are  the  things  we  have  always  professed  to  desire,  and 
unless  we  pour  out  blood  and  treasure  now  and  succeed,  we  may 
never  be  able  to  unite  or  show  conquering  force  again  in  the  great 
cause  of  human  liberty.  The  day  has  come  to  conquer  or  submit. 
If  the  forces  of  autocracy  can  divide  us  they  will  overcome  us;  if 
we  stand  together,  victory  is  certain  and  the  liberty  which  victory 
will  secure.  We  can  afford,  then,  to  be  generous,  but  we  cannot 
afford,  then  or  now.  to  be  weak  or  omit  any  single  guaranty  ot 
justice  and  security." 

This  note  was  supplemented  by  another  explaining-  the  aims 
of  the  American  Extraordinary  Mission  to  Russia.  The  second 
note  was  made  public  on  June  18,  and  read  as  follows : 

"The  High  Commission  now  on  its  way  from  this  country  to 
Russia  is  sent  primarily  to  manifest  to  the  Russian  Government  and 
people  the  deep  sympathetic  feeling  which  exists  among  all  classes  in 
America  for  the  adherence  of  Russia  to  the  principle  of  democracy, 
which  has  been  the  foundation  of  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  this 
country.  The  High  Commissioners  go  to  convey  the  greetings  of 
this  Republic  to  the  new  and  powerful  member  which  has  joined 
the  great  familv  of  democratic   nations. 


380  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


The  Commissioners  who  will  bear  this  fraternal  message  to  the 
people  of  Russia  have  been  selected  by  the  President  with  the  special 
purpose  of  giving  representation  to  the  various  elements  which  make 
up  the  American  people  and  to  show  that  among  them  all  there  is 
the  same  love  of  country  and  the  same  devotion  to  liberty  and 
justice  and  loyalty  to  constituted  authority.  The  Commission  is  not 
chosen  from  one  political  group,  but  from  the  various  groups  into 
which  the  American  electorate  is  divided.  United,  they  represent 
the  Republic.  However  much  they  may  differ  on  public  questions, 
they  are  one  in  support  of  democracy  and  in  hostility  to  the  enemies 
of  democracy  throughout  the  world. 

The  Commission  is  prepared,  if  the  Russian  Government  desires, 
to  confer  upon  the  best  ways  and  means  to  bring  about  effective 
cooperation  between  the  two  Governments  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  against  the  German  autocracy,  which  is  to-day  the  gravest  men- 
ace to  all  democratic  Governments.  It  is  the  view  of  this  Govern- 
ment that  it  has  become  the  solemn  duty  of  those  who  love  democ- 
racy and  individual  liberty  to  render  harmless  this  autocratic  Gov- 
ernment, whose  ambition,  aggression,  and  intrigue  have  been  dis- 
closed in  the  present  struggle.  Whatever  the  cost  in  life  and  treasure, 
the  supreme  object  should  be  and  can  be  attained  only  by  the  united 
strength  of  the  democracies  of  the  world,  and  only  then  can  come 
that  permanent  and  universal  peace  which  is  the  hope  of  all  people. 

To  the  common  cause  of  humanity,  which  Russia  has  so  coura- 
geously and  unflinchingly  supported  for  nearly  three  years,  the  United 
States  is  pledged.  To  cooperate  and  aid  Russia  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  task,  which  as  a  great  democracy  is  more  truly  hers 
to-day  than  ever  before,  is  the  desire  of  the  United  States.  To  stan,d 
side  by  side,  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  autocracy,  will  unite  the 
American  and  Russian  peoples  in  a  friendship  for  the  ages. 

With  this  spirit,  the  High  Commissioners  of  the  United  States 
will  present  themselves  in  the  confident  hope  that  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment and  people  will  realize  how  sincerely  the  United  States 
hopes  for  their  welfare  and  desires  to  share  with  them  in  their  future 
endeavors  to  bring  victory  to  the  cause  of  democracy  and  human 
liberty." 


The  Mission  reached  Petrograd,  via  Vladivostok,  on  June 
13,  1917.  On  June  15  the  Members  of  the  Special  Diplomatic 
Mission  of  the  United  States  were  presented  to  the  Russian 
Provisional  Government  by  the  Ambassador  of  the  United 
States,  the  Honorable  David  R.  Francis,  who  said: 

"Thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  service,  these  Ameri- 
cans have  cheerfully  responded  to  the  call  of  President  Wilson, 


The  American  Mission  to  Russia  381 

and  are  here  to  perform  an  important  duty.  I  feel  it  a  great 
honor  to  present  this  Special  Diplomatic  Mission  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia. 

Permit  me  to  introduce  to  the  Council  of  Ministers  the 
distinguished  Chairman  of  the  Mission,  the  Honorable  Elihu 
Root,  former  Secretary  of  War,  former  Secretary  of  State, 
former  Senator  of  the  United  States,  always  a  true  American." 

Mr.  Root  thereupon  made  the  following  address : 

"Mr.  President  and  Members  of  the  Council  of  Ministers:  The 
Mission  for  which  I  have  the  honor  to  speak  is  charged  by  the 
Government  and  people  of  the  United  States  of  America  with  a 
message  to  the  Government  and  people  of  Russia.  The  Mission 
comes  from  a  democratic  Republic.  Its  members  are  commissioned 
and  instructed  by  a  President  who  holds  his  high  office  as  Chief 
Executive  of  more  than  100,000,000  free  people  by  virtue  of  popular 
election,  in  which  more  than  18,000,000  votes  were  freely  cast,  and 
fairly  counted  pursuant  to  law,  by  universal,  equal,  direct,  and  secret 
suffrage. 

For  one  hundred  and  forty  years  our  people  have  been  struggling 
with  the  hard  problems  of  self-government.  With  many  short- 
comings, many  mistakes,  many  imperfections,  we  still  have  main- 
tained order  and  respect  for  law,  individual  freedom,  and  national 
independence.  Under  the  security  of  our  own  laws,  we  have  grown 
in  strength  and  prosperity.  But  we  value  our  freedom  more  than 
wealth.  We  love  liberty,  and  we  cherish  above  all  our  possessions 
the  ideals  for  which  our  fathers  fought  and  suffered  and  sacrificed 
that  America  might  be  free. 

We  believe  in  the  competence  of  the  power  of  democracy  and  in 
our  heart  of  hearts  abides  faith  in  the  coming  of  a  better  world  in 
which  the  humble  and  oppressed  of  all  lands  may  be  lifted  up  by 
freedom  to  a  heritage  of  justice  and  equal  opportunity. 

The  news  of  Russia's  new-found  freedom  brought  to  America 
universal  satisfaction  and  joy.  From  all  the  land  sympathy  and  hope 
went  out  to  the  new  sister  in  the  circle  of  democracies.  And  the 
Mission  is  sent  to  express  that  feeling. 

The  American  democracy  sends  to  the  democracy  of  Russia  a 
greeting  of  sympathy,  friendship,  brotherhood,  Godspeed.  Distant 
America  knows  little  of  the  special  conditions  of  Russian  life  which 
must  give  form  to  the  Government  and  to  the  laws  which  you  are 
about  to  create.  As  we  have  developed  our  institutions  to  serve  the 
needs  of  our  national  character  and  life,  so  we  assume  that  you  will 
develop  your  institutions  to  serve  the  needs  of  Russian  character 
and  life. 

As  we  look  across  the  sea  we  distinguish  no  party,  no  class.     We 


382  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


see  great  Russia  as  a  whole,  as  one  mighty,  striving,  aspiring  democ- 
racy. We  know  the  self-control,  essential  kindliness,  strong  common 
sense,  courage,  and  noble  idealism  of  the  Russian  character.  We 
have  faith  in  you  all.  We  pray  for  God's  blessing  upon  you  all.  We 
believe  you  will  solve  your  problems,  that  you  will  maintain  your 
liberty,  and  that  our  two  great  nations  will  march  side  by  side  in 
the  triumphant  progress  of  democracy  until  the  old  order  everywhere 
has  passed  away  and  the  world  is  free. 

One  fearful  danger  threatens  the  liberty  of  both  nations.  The 
armed  forces  of  a  military  autocracy  are  at  the  gates  of  Russia  and 
of  her  Allies.  The  triumph  of  German  arms  will  mean  the  death  of 
liberty  in  Russia.  No  enemy  is  at  the  gates  of  America,  but  America 
has  come  to  realize  that  the  triumph  of  German  arms  means  the 
death  of  liberty  in  the  world;  that  we  who  love  liberty  and  would  keep 
it  must  fight  for  it,  and  fight  for  it  now  when  the  free  democracies 
of  the  world  may  be  strong  in  union,  and  not  delay  until  they  may 
be  beaten  down  separately  in  succession. 

So  America  sends  another  message  to  Russia — that  we  are  going 
to  fight,  for  your  freedom  equally  with  our  own,  and  we  ask  you  to 
fight  for  our  freedom  equally  with  yours.  We  would  make  your 
cause  ours,  and,  with  a  common  purpose  and  mutual  helpfulness  of 
a  firm  alliance,  make  sure  of  victory  over  our  common  foe. 

You  will  recognize  your  own  sentiments  and  purposes  in  the  words 
of  President  Wilson  to  the  American  Congress,  when  on  the  second 
of  April  last  he  advised  a  declaration  of  war  against  Germany.  He 
said: 

'We  are  accepting  this  challenge  of  hostile  purpose  because  we 
know  that  in  such  a  government  (the  German  Government),  follow- 
ing such  methods,  we  can  never  have  a  friend;  and  that  in  the 
presence  of  its  organized  power,  always  lying  in  wait  to  accomplish 
we  know  not  what  purpose,  there  can  be  no  assured  security  for  the 
democratic  governments  of  the  world.  We  are  about  to  accept  the 
gage  of  battle  with  this  natural  foe  to  liberty  and  shall,  if  necessary, 
spend  the  whole  force  of  the  nation  to  check  and  nullify  its  preten- 
sions and  its  power.  We  are  glad,  now  that  we  see  the  facts  with  no 
veil  of  false  pretense  about  them,  to  fight  thus  for  the  ultimate  peace 
of  the  world  and  for  the  liberation  of  its  peoples,  the  German  peoples 
included;  for  the  rights  of  nations  great  and  small  and  the  privilege 
of  men  everywhere  to  choose  their  way  of  life  and  of  obedience. 
The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy.  Its  peace  must  be 
planted  upon  the  tested  foundations  of  political  liberty.  We  have 
no  selfish  ends  to  serve.  We  desire  no  conquest,  no  dominion.  We 
seek  no  indemnities  for  ourselves,  no  material  compensation  for  the 
sacrifices  we  shall  freely  make.  We  are  but  one  of  the  champions 
of  the   rights  of  mankind.     We   shall  be   satisfied  when   those   rights 


SENATOR  ELIHU  ROOT 
Head  of  the  U.  S.  Extraordinary  Mission  to  Russia. 


384  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


have  been   made  as  secure   as   the  faith  and  the   freedom  of  nations 
can  make  them.' 

And  you  will  see  the  feeling  toward  Russia  with   which  America 
has   entered   the    great   war   in   another   clause   of   the   same   address. 
President   Wilson   further   said: 

'Does  not  every  American  feel  that  assurance  has  been  added  to 
our  hope  for  the  future  peace  of  the  world  by  the  wonderful  and 
heartening  things  that  have  been  happening  within  the  last  few  weeks 
in  Russia?  Russia  was  known  by  those  who  knew  it  best  to  have 
been  always  in  fact  democratic  at  heart,  in  all  the  vital  habits  of  her 
thought,  in  all  the  intimate  relationships  of  her  people  that  spoke 
their  natural  instinct,  their  habitual  attitude  towards  life.  The  autoc- 
racy that  crowned  the  summit  of  her  political  structure,  long  as  it 
had  stood  and  terrible  as  was  the  reality  of  its  power,  was  not  in 
fact  Russian  in  origin,  character,  or  purpose,  and  now  it  has  been 
shaken  off  and  the  great  generous  Russian  people  have  been  added 
in  all  their  naive  majesty  and  might  to  the  forces  that  are  fighting 
for  freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice,  and  for  peace.  Here  is  a  fit 
partner  for  a  League  of  Honor.' 

That  partnership  of  honor  in  the  great  struggle  for  human  free- 
dom, the  oldest  of  the  great  democracies  now  seeks  in  fraternal 
union  with  the  youngest. 

The  practical  and  specific  methods  and  possibilities  of  our  allied 
cooperation,  the  members  of  the  Mission  would  be  glad  to  discuss 
with  the  members  of  the  Government  of  Russia." 

The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  I.  Terestchenko,  replied 
to  Mr.  Root's  address,  in  English,  as  follows : 

"It  is  a  great  honor  to  me  to  have  the  pleasure  of  receiving  this 
Mission,  which  is  sent  by  the  American  people  and  their  President 
to  freed  Russia  to  express  the  feelings  of  deep  sympathy  which 
the  Provisional  Government,  representing  the  people  of  Russia,  have 
toward  your  country. 

The  event  of  the  great  Revolution  which  we  have  achieved  makes 
allies  of  the  oldest  and  the  newest  Republics  in  the  world.  Our 
Revolution  was  based  on  the  same  wonderful  words  which  first  were 
expressed  in  that  memorable  document  in  which  the  American  people 
in  1776  declared  their  independence. 

Just   as   the    American   people   then    declared: 

'We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created 
equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
Rights,  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  Hap- 
piness. That  to  secure  these  rights,  Governments  are  instituted 
among  Men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed.  That  whenever  any  form  of  Government  becomes  de- 
structive of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of  the  People  to  alter  or  to 


The  American  Mission  to  Russia 


abolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  Government,  laying  its  foundation  on 
such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them 
shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  Safety  and  Happiness.  Pru- 
dence, indeed,  will  dictate  that  Governments  long  established  should 
not  be  changed  for  light  and  transient  causes;  and  accordingly,  all 
experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer, 
while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  the 
form  to  which  they  are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses 
and  usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  Object  evinces  a  de- 
sign to  reduce  them  under  absolute  Despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is 
their  duty  to  throw  off  such  Government,  and  to  provide  new  Guards 
for  their  future  security.' 

So  the  Russian  people,  who  for  centuries  have  been  enslaved  by 
a  Government  which  was  not  that  which  the  feeling  of  the  nation 
wished  or  wanted,  have  so  declared  and  shaken  off  the  fetters  which 
bound  them,  and  as  the  wind  blows  away  the  leaves  in  autumn  so  the 
Government  which  has  bound  us  for  centuries  has  fallen,  and  nothing 
is  left  but  the  free  government  of  the  people. 

So  the  Russian  people  now  stand  before  the  world  conscious  of 
their  strength  and  astonished  at  the  ease  with  which  that  Revolution 
happened,  and  the  first  days  of  our  freedom,  indeed,  brought  surprise 
to  us  as  well  as  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  the  day  which  brought 
the  Revolution  was  not  only  a  day  which  brought  freedom,  for  it 
brought  us  face  to  face  with  two  enormous  problems  which  now  stand 
before  the  Russian  people,  and  these  problems  are  the  creation  of  a 
strong  democratic  force  in  the  interior  of  Russia,  and  a  fight  with  the 
common  foe  without,  with  that  foe  which  is  fighting  you  as  well  as 
us,  and  which  is  now  the  last  form  and  last  strength  of  autocracy: 
and  it  was  with  a  feeling  of  gladness  that  we  found  you  on  the  side 
of  the  Allies,  and  that  after  our  Revolution  there  was  no  autocracy 
among  those  with  whom  we  found  ourselves  fighting.  YYe  found 
with  joy  that  in  the  high,  lofty  motives  which  have  impelled  your 
great  Republic  to  enter  this  conflict  there  is  no  strain  of  autocracy 
or  spirit  of  conquest,  and  our  free  people  must  be  guided  by  those 
same  high,  lofty  motives  and  principles. 

And  now  let  us  stand  together,  for  we  pursue  the  same  endeavor 
in  the  war  and  in  the  peace  which  is  to  follow.  "\Ye  representatives 
of  the  Russian  nation  who  have  been  placed  at  its  head  to  lead  the 
Russian  nation  through  its  hardships  on  its  way  to  freedom,  following 
these  principles  which  have  always  brought  a  nation  from  complete 
slavery  into  complete  freedom,  are  confident  we  shall  find  the  way 
which  will  lead  us  side  by  side,  not  only  the  Russian  peoples,  but  its 
Allies,  along  that  way  which  will  bring  us  to  future  happiness. 

The  Revolution  of  Russia  is  a  moral  factor  which  shows  the  will 
of  the  Russian  people  in  its   endeavor  to   secure   liberty   and  justice. 


386  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

and  these  elements  the  Russian  people  show  and  wish  to  show,  not 
only  in  their  internal  affairs,  which  we  ourselves  have  to  lead  and  in 
which  we  wish  to  be  guided  by  these  principles,  but  also  in  our  inter- 
national relations  and  in  oar  international  policies. 

This  war,  which  was  brought  upon  us  three  years  ago  and  which 
the  Russian  Revolution  found  when  it  entered  the  struggle  of  free 
nations,  left  one  door  for  us  to  enter,  and  by  that  door  we  have 
entered  and  shall  continue  in  that  path.  These  Russian  people  strive 
for  the  end  of  militarism  and  for  a  durable  peace  which  would  exclude 
every  violence  from  whatever  side  it  may  come  and  all  imperialistic 
schemes,  whatever  their  form  may  be.  The  Russian  people  have  no 
wish  of  conquest  or  dominion  and  are  opposed  to  those  ideas  in 
others,  and  first  of  all  they  will  not  allow  any  of  those  imperialistic 
desires  which  our  enemy  has  formed,  manifest  or  hidden,  to  come 
to  good  in  whatever  sphere  he  may  have  planned  them,  political, 
financial,  or  economic.  This  constitues  the  firm  will  or  what  Russia 
has  to  guard  herself  against. 

There  is  also  a  second  great  thought  which  was  expressed  by  that 
memorable  document  by  which  the  nation  of  the  United  States  and 
its  people  on  the  day  of  their  independence  declared  their  desires  and 
wishes,  and  which  says  that  nations  should  have  a  right  to  show 
themselves  the  way  they  wish  to  go  and  to  decide  their  own  future, 
and  this  high  principle  the  Russian  people  have  accepted  and  consider 
that  it  must  guide  their  policies;  and  they  consider  also  that  all 
nations,  however  small  or  great,  have  the  right  to  decide  what  their 
future  will  be,  and  that  no  territory  and  no  people  can  be  transferred 
from  one  country  to  another  without  their  consent.  Human  beings 
have  the  right  to  say  for  themselves  what  they  shall  do  and  whose 
subjects  they  shall  become. 

I  am  happy  to  see  you,  and  happy  to  say  that  there  is  no  idea  or 
factor  of  a  moral  or  material  kind  to  divide  us  or  to  prevent  us  from 
being  hand  in  hand  across  the  Pacific.  These  two  great  peoples,  the 
free  people  of  Russia  and  the  free  people  of  America,  the  great  people 
of  the  United  States,  the  oldest,  strongest,  and  purest  democracy, 
hand  in  hand,  will  show  the  way  that  human  happiness  will  take  in 
the  future. 

Allow  me,  therefore,  to  greet  you,  to  welcome  you  in  the  name 
of  my  colleagues  and  of  our  Government,  which  represents  our  people, 
and  to  say  how  happy  we  are  to  see  you  here." 


ON  July   10  the  American  Mission  announced  that  its 
purpose  had  been  achieved  in  a  month's  visit.    Senator 
Root  issued  the  following  statement: 
"The  Mission  has  accomplished  what  it  came  here  to  do, 


The  American  Mission  to  Russia  387 

and  we  are  greatly  encouraged.  We  found  no  organic  or  in- 
curable malady  in  the  Russian  Democracy.  Democracies  are 
always  in  trouble,  and  we  have  seen  days  just  as  dark  in  the 
progress  of  our  own. 

We  must  remember  that  a  people  in  whom  all  constructive 
effort  has  been  suppressed  for  so  long  cannot  immediately 
develop  a  genius  for  quick  action.  The  first  stage  is  necessarily 
one  of  debate.  The  solid,  admirable  traits  in  the  Russian 
character  will  pull  the  nation  through  the  present  crisis. 
Natural  love  of  law  and  order  and  capacity  for  local  self- 
government  have  been  demonstrated  every  day  since  the 
Revolution.  The  country's  most  serious  lack  is  money  and 
adequate  transportation.  We  shall  do  what  we  can  to  help 
Russia  in  both." 

The  Mission  returned  from  Russia  early  in  August  and 
reported  to  Washington  on  August  12.  During  its  stay  in 
Russia  the  Mission  had  been  very  active,  and  Senator  Root 
had  personally  addressed  many  meetings,  among  them  the 
Moscow  Municipal  Duma,  the  War-Industrial  Committee  at 
Moscow,  the  All-Russian  Zemstvos  Union,  the  Moscow  Peo- 
ple's Bank  and  the  Moscow  Stock  Exchange.  Senator  Root 
appeared  also  at  large  public  meetings,  addressing  working- 
men  and  soldiers. 

James  Duncan,  the  representative  of  Labor  in  the  Mission, 
on  June  29  addressed  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  greeting  the  Congress  in  the 
name  of  the  workingmen  of  the  United  States.  He  pointed 
out  that  the  purpose  of  the  American  Mission  was  to  extend  a 
brotherly  hand  to  the  Russian  Democracy.  N.  S.  Tscheidze. 
the  Chairman  of  the  Congress,  thanked  the  speaker  in  behalf 
of  the  Russian  proletariat : 

"Never  was  the  unity  of  the  workers  as  necessary  as  it  is 
now,"  said  Tscheidze.  "We  hope  that  here,  in  Russia,  the 
monarchy  will  never  be  reestablished  and  that  with  the  aid  of 
the  democracies  of  other  countries  the  dynasties  of  Germany 
and  Austria-Hungary  will  fall  as  well.  The  assistance  of 
America  is  wanted  upon  one  question  particularly.  You  said 
that  we  need  a  speedy  termination  of  the  war.     This  is  true. 


388  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

But  you  said  that  the  war  must  be  a  victorious  one.  If  by 
these  words  you  understand  the  declaration  of  the  Councils 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  then  we  greet  such  a 
victory.  Such  a  victory  we  are  all  craving  for.  It  will  help 
us  to  continue  the  class  struggle  and  will  bring  us  to  the 
kingdom  of  Socialism.  Long  live  Socialism!  Long  live  the 
laboring  class  of  America!" 

Charles  Edward  Russell,  on  June  25,  had  outlined  before  the 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  the  aims  of  the 
United  States  and  the  reasons  which  brought  the  country  into 
the  war.  His  declaration  that  the  United  States  is  fighting 
only  because  the  very  principle  of  democracy  is  in  danger 
was  cheered  by  almost  the  entire  assembly. 


SENATOR  ROOT  probably  best  expressed  the  purpose 
of  the  Mission,  speaking  at  the  reception  tendered  him 
by  the  City  of  New  York,  after  the  return  of  the  Mission, 
on  August  15,  1917. 

"It  was  the  purpose  of  this  Mission."  said  Senator  Root,  "not 
merely  to  carry  a  message  of  friendship  and  good  feeling  from 
the  United  States  to  Russia.  As  events  developed  before  we 
reached  Russia,  it  became  the  function  of  this  group  of  Ameri- 
can citizens  to  carry  to  the  people  of  Russia  a  message  of  faith 
in  Democracy,  to  say  to  them:  'Take  heart,  be  of  good  cheer; 
faint  not,  despair  not.  We  say  to  you  from  the  hundred  mil- 
lion free  people  of  America,  who  for  one  hundred  and  forty 
years  have  been  fighting  the  battles  of  Democracy,  that  there 
lives  a  power  in  Democracy  that  will  overcome  all  evyH,  and  it 
is  with  you,  and  with  it  you  will  triumph.'  " 

Senator  Root  and  his  Mission  had  accomplished  perfectly 
the  task  that  had  devolved  upon  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Mission  brought  back  a  message  to  the  United  States,  and 
this  message  is  again  best  expressed  in  Senator  Root's  own 
words,  spoken  at  the  same  reception : 

"We  have  come  back  with  faith  in  Russia,  faith  in  the 
qualities  of  character  that  are  the  essential  tests  of  competency 
for  self-government,  faith  in  the  purpose,  the  persistence  and 
the  power  of  the  Russian  people  to  keep  themselves  free.    And 


The  American  Mission  to  Russia  389 

they  know  that  they  cannot  be  free,  that  they  cannot  build 
up  a  structure  of  government  based  upon  and  conforming  to 
the  life  and  character  and  genius  of  the  Russian  people  if 
Germany  is  allowed  to  dominate  in  their  land." 

On  the  same  day,  speaking  before  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  the  State  of  New  York,  Senator  Root  said : 

"There  is  but  one  danger  I  see,  and  that  is  that  Russia  may 
be  overwhelmed  by  Germany ;  and  if  that  were  to  happen, 
the  development  of  the  free  institutions  in  Russia,  adapted  to 
her  life  and  character  and  the  genius  of  the  Russian  people, 
would  be  made  impossible.  The  Russians  know  that — the 
thoughtful  men  of  Russia  know  that  —  and,  with  courage 
worthy  of  all  honor,  with  courage  worthy  of  imitation  by  us, 
they  are  wrestling  mightily  to  prevent  that  great  misfortune. 
No  one  can  tell  what  the  outcome  will  be,  but  this  is  certain, 
that  Russia,  tired  of  the  war,  worn  and  harried  by  war;  Russia, 
which  has  lost  7,000,000  of  her  sons,  with  every  village  in 
mourning,  every  family  bereaved ;  Russia  has  again  taken  up 
the  heavy  burden ;  she  has  to  a  great  extent  restored  the  disci- 
pline of  her  Army ;  she  has  put  away  the  bright  vision  of  peace 
and  rest,  and  returned  yet  again  to  the  sacrifice  and  suffering 
of  war  in  order  that  she  might  continue  free." 

This  statement  was  made  on  the  eve  of  the  Moscow  Na- 
tional Conference,  when  nobody,  even  among  the  Russian 
statesmen,  could  have  foreseen  the  inevitability  of  Russia's 
temporary  collapse.  Everybody  was  certain  that  Russia  would 
still  be  saved  through  the  unity  of  all  her  progressive  forces. 
The  American  Mission  naturally  shared  this  view  and  re- 
turned to  the  United  States  optimistic,  with  faith  in  Russia, 
which  now,  in  the  light  of  the  latest  developments,  may  seem 
ungrounded.  But  such  a  conclusion  would  certainly  be  ex- 
tremely superficial.* 

It  was  on  the  way  from  the  Pacific  port  to  Washington, 
when  Senator  Root,  being  advised  of  the  pessimistic  reports 
coming  from  Russia,  remarked  to  a  group  of  newspaper  men : 


•It  must  be  stated  that  all  the  foreign  statesmen  who  visited  Russia  at 
that  time,  not  only  Senator  Root,  but  also  the  Labor  and  Socialist  leaders. 
Emile  Vandervelde.  Albert  Thomas.  Arturo  Labriola  and  Arthur  Hender- 
son.— all  of  them  left  Russia  optimistic,  without  any  presentiment  of  the 
coming  catastrophe. 


390  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

"We  took  a  long  time  to  form  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  I  judge  from  the  newspapers  that  we 
have  not  yet  perfected  it  and  that  a  great  deal  remains  to  be 
done." 

In  these  few  words  we  have  the  best  reply  to  all  who  are 
pessimistic  about  Russia.  Whatever  has  happened,  the  Rus- 
sian Democracy  is  still  alive  and  will  never  return  to  the  old 
regime  or  accept  the  German  domination,  which  is  only  an- 
other form  of  the  old  regime.  Senator  Root's  statement  that 
Russia  must  return  to  war  "in  order  that  she  might  continue 
free"  still  remains  the  axiom  that  sums  up  the  Russian  situa- 
tion. This  truth  was  known  to  the  educated  Russian  classes 
long  ago,  and  now  the  German  "peace"  makes  it  clear  to  the 
masses.  Democratic  Russia  and  autocratic  Germany  at  peace 
with  one  another  while  the  world  is  aflame  with  war  for 
Democracy;  Russia  "neutral"  while  Germany  is  cutting  her 
living  body  and  trampling  upon  her  soul,  is  such  a  glaring 
contradiction  that  no  one  can  believe  in  the  stability  of  such  a 
peace. 

If  the  war  continues  Russia  will  come  back.  Russia  will 
come  back  if  she  is  not  dead,  and  she  is  far  from  being  dead. 
And  if  Russia  comes  back  now,  after  she  has  lived  through  the 
nightmare  of  Bolshevism,  she  will  be  a  decided,  a  powerful 
ally,  whose  behavior  will  surpass  every  optimistic  hope  and 
everv  faith  entertained  bv  those  who  know  her  and  love  her. 


CHAPTER  XI 
The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  States 

THE  Russian  Extraordinary  Mission  to  the  United  States 
arrived  in  Washington  on  June  19.  1917.  The  Mission 
was  headed  by  Professor  Boris  A.  Bakhmeteff,  the 
first  Ambassador  of  free  Russia  to  the  United  States.  The 
Mission  included  Lieutenant-General  V.  Roop,  Representative 
of  the  Russian  Army :  Professor  J.  V.  Lomonosoff,  Repre- 
sentative of  the  Ministry  of  Means  of  Communication  ;  Pro- 
fessor N.  A.  Borodine.  Representative  of  the  Ministry  of  Agri- 
culture ;  J.  J.  Soukine.  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs ;  E.  I. 
Omelchenko.  of  the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry,  and  A'.  J. 
Novitsky,  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance. 

On  July  5  Ambassador  Bakhmeteff  presented  his  credentials 
to  President  Wilson  with  the  following  address  : 

"Mr.  President:  I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  to  you  the  letters 
by  which  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia  is  accrediting  me  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  of  America  as  its  Ambassador 
Extraordinary   and   Plenipotentiary. 

My  Government  has  directed  me  to  express  to  you  its  profound 
gratitude  for  the  noble  act  of  prompt  recognition  by  your  Govern- 
ment of  the  new  order  established  in  Russia  and  to  convey  to  the 
Government  and  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  the  feelings  of 
sincere    sympathy   and   friendship. 

At  the  present  time  the  historical  paths  of  the  United  States  and 
Russia  have  been  drawn  close  in  the  common  struggle  for  freedom 
and  lasting  peace  of  the  world,  and  in  this  strife  the  new-born  Russian 
Democracy  is  being  guided  by  the  same  unselfish  aims,  the  same 
human   and    democratic   principles   as    this   great   Republic. 

The  success  of  our  mutual  task  makes  essential  the  firm  estab- 
lishment of  the  democratic  regime  in  Russia  as  well  as  the  con- 
solidation of  Russia's  fighting  power.  To  that  end  are  tending  the 
efforts  of  the  Provisional  Government,  which  is  waiting  to  find  a 
source  of  new  strength  in  the  hearty  spirit  and  brotherly  support  of 
the  United  States.  For  such  attainments  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment is  endeavoring  to  establish  a  full  understanding  and  a  close  co- 
operation with  the  Government  of  this  country,  whose  immense  re- 
sources and  unlimited  energy  can  contribute  most  effectively  to  the 
achievements  of  our  cause.  To  bring  such  cooperation  into  effect 
and  to  establish  means  of  common  activity  on  the  most  practical 
lines  and  with  no  loss  of  time,  the  Provisional  Government  has  con- 


392  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


sidered  it  necessary  to  bestow  on  me  exceptional  powers  to  treat  and 
decide,  on  behalf  of  my  Government,  all  manifold  questions  in  which 
such  cooperation  should  have  to  reveal  itself. 

To  secure  unity  of  action,  the  Provisional  Government  has  con- 
centrated under  my  supreme  guidance  the  activities  of  various  Rus- 
sian institutions  and  representatives  in  this  country,  and  has  pro- 
vided for  amplified  efficacy  by  sending  a  number  of  new,  competent 
delegates  who  have  accompanied  me  on  my  Mission. 

Confident  that  the  natural  sympathy  of  the  two  nations  will  grow 
into  bonds  of  solid  friendship,  I  look  forward  with  the  greatest 
hopes  to  the  results  of  the  united  efforts  of  the  two  great  Democ- 
racies, based  on  mutual  understanding  and  common  aims." 

The  following  is  the  reply  of  the  President: 

"Mr.  Ambassador,  to  the  keen  satisfaction  which  I  derived  from 
the  fact  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  was  the  first  to 
welcome,  by  its  official  recognition,  the  new  Democracy  of  Russia 
to  the  family  of  free  States  is  added  the  exceptional  pleasure  which 
I  experience  in  now  receiving  from  your  hand  the  letters  whereby 
the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia  accredits  you  as  its  Am- 
bassador Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  to  the  United  States,  and 
in  according  to  you  formal  recognition  as  the  first  Ambassador  of 
free  Russia  to  this  country. 

For  the  people  of  Russia  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
ever  entertained  friendly  feelings,  which  have  now  been  greatly  deep- 
ened by  the  knowledge  that,  actuated  by  the  same  lofty  motives,  the 
two  Governments  and  peoples  are  cooperating  to  bring  to  a  success- 
ful termination  the  conflict  now  raging  for  human  liberty  and  a 
universal  acknowledgment  of  those  principles  of  right  and  justice 
which  should  direct  all  Governments.  I  feel  convinced  that  when 
this  happy  day  shall  come  no  small  share  of  the  credit  will  be  due 
to  the  devoted  people  of  Russia,  who,  overcoming  disloyalty  from 
within  and  intrigue  from  without,  remain  steadfast  to  the  cause. 

The  Mission  which  it  was  my  pleasure  to  send  to  Russia  has 
already  assured  the  Provisional  Government  that  in  this  momentous 
struggle  and  in  the  problems  that  confront  and  will  confront  the  free 
Government  of  Russia  that  Government  may  count  on  the  steadfast 
friendship  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  its  constant 
cooperation  in  all  desired  appropriate  directions. 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  give  expression  to  my  admiration  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia  are  meeting 
all  requirements,  to  my  entire  sympathy  with  them  in  their  noble 
object  to  insure  to  the  people  of  Russia  the  blessings  of  freedom  and 
of  equal  rights  and  opportunity,  and  to  my  faith  that  through  their 
efforts  Russia  will  assume  her  rightful  place  among  the  great  free 
nations  of  the  world." 


PROF.  BORIS  A.   BAKHMETEV 
First  Ambassador  from  free  Russia  to  the  United  States. 


394  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

On  June  21  Ambassador  Rakhmeteff  issued  the  following 
statement  to  the  American  press : 

"In  behalf  of  the  Russian  Provisional  Government  and  in  behalf 
of  all  the  people  of  New  Russia,  I  have  been  first  of  all  sent  here  to 
express  their  gratitude  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for 
the  prompt  recognition  of  the  new  political  order  in  Russia. 

This  noble  action  of  the  world's  greatest  Democracy  has  afforded 
us  strong  moral  support  and  has  created  among  our  people  a  general 
feeling  of  profound  appreciation. 

Close  and  active  relationship  between  the  two  nations,  based  upon 
complete  and  sincere  understanding,  encountered  inevitable  obstacles 
during  the  old  regime,  because  of  its  very  nature.  The  situation  is 
now  radically  changed  with  free  Russia  starting  a  new  era  in  her 
national  life.  The  natural  and  deep  feeling  of  sympathy  which  always 
existed  between  the  people  of  the  two  great  nations  will  grow  now, 
by  the  force  of  events,  into  a  stable  friendship — into  permanent  and 
active  cooperation. 

I  have  been  in  this  country  heretofore  on  several  occasions;  I  have 
many  friends  here  and  have  always  looked  forward  to  a  close  union 
and  friendship  between  the  United  States  and  Russia.  The  United 
States  with  its  enormous  natural  resources  and  its  wonderful  genius 
for  organization,  can  now  greatly  aid  in  the  work  of  reconstruction 
which  is  taking  place  in  Russia. 

Another  object  of  our  Mission  is  to  establish  the  most  effective 
means  by  which  the  American  and  Russian  Democracies  can  work 
hand  in  hand  in  the  common  task  of  successfully  carrying  on  the 
war.  The  friendly  assistance  which  the  United  States  has  already 
rendered  has  been  of  the  highest  value. 

The  Provisional  Government  is  actually  mobilizing  all  its  resources 
and  is  making  great  efforts  to  organize  the  country  and  the  Army 
for  the  purpose  of  conducting  the  war.  We  hope  to  establish  a  very 
close  and  active  cooperation  with  the  United  States  in  order  to 
secure  the  most  successful  and  intensive  accomplishments  of  all  work 
necessary  for  our  common  end;  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  all 
matters  relating  to  military  affairs,  munitions  and  supplies,  railways 
and  transportation,  finance  and  agriculture,  our  Mission  includes 
eminent  and  distinguished  specialists. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  hope  that  the  result  of  our  stay  and  work  in 
America  will  bring  about  a  clear  understanding  on  the  part  of  your 
public  of  what  has  happened  in  Russia  and  also  of  the  present  situa- 
tion and  the  end  for  which  our  people  are  most  earnestly  striving. 
There  have  been  many  and  various  narratives  of  what  has  been  and 
is  taking  place  in  Russia,  but  there  seems  to  be  lack  of  exact  and  true 
comprehension.     Our  Commission  will  make  every  endeavor  to  throw 


The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  States  395 


light  upon  the  very  great  and  world  important  events  of  the  Russian 
Revolution. 

The  achievements  of  the  Revolution  are  to  be  formally  set  forth 
in  fundamental  laws  enacted  by  a  Constituent  Assembly  which  is  to 
be  convoked  as  soon  as  possible.  In  the  meanwhile  the  Provisional 
Government  is  confronted  with  the  task  of  bringing  into  life  the 
democratic  principles  which  were  promulgated  during  the  Revolution. 
It  is  actively  engaged  in  reconstructing  the  very  life  of  the  entire 
country  along  democratic  lines  introducing  freedom,  equality  and 
self-government. 

New  Russia  received  from  the  old  Government  a  burdensome  heri- 
tage of  economic  and  technical  disorganization  which  affected  all 
branches  of  the  life  of  the  State,  a  disorganization  which  still  weighs 
heavily  on  the  whole  country.  The  Provisional  Government  is  doing 
everything  in  its  power  to  relieve  the  difficult  situation.  It  has 
adopted  many  measures  for  supplying  plants  with  raw  material  and 
fuel,  for  regulating  the  transportation  of  the  food  supply  for  the 
Army  and  for  the  country,  and  for  relieving  the  financial   difficulties. 

In  this  energetic  work  of  reconstruction,  essential  for  Russia's 
active  participation  in  the  war,  the  Provisional  Government  is  steadily 
gaining  in  strength  and  activity.  The  latest  reports  demonstrate  that 
the  new  Government  has  the  capacity  to  carry  on  its  work  with 
vigor  along  practical  lines  and  is  exercising  real  power  which  is 
daily  increasing.  Such  power  is  based  on  the  general  confidence  and 
full  and  whole-hearted  support  accorded  the  new  Coalition  Ministry. 

The  participation  in  the  new  Government  by  new  members  who 
are  active  and  prominent  leaders  in  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  has  secured  full  support  from  the  democratic 
masses.  The  esteem  in  which  such  leaders  as  Mr.  Kerensky.  Tsere- 
telli  and  others  are  held  among  the  working  classes  and  soldiers  is 
contributing  to  the  strength  and  stability  of  the  new   Government. 

The  Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  the  Labor  Party,  the  Social- 
ist-Populists, and,  excepting  a  small  group  of  extremists,  the  Social- 
Democrats — all  these  parties,  embracing  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people,  are  represented  by  strong  leaders  in  the  new  Government, 
thereby  securing  for  it  authority.  Firmly  convinced  that  unity  of 
power  is  essential  and  casting  aside  class  and  special  interests,  all 
social  and  political  elements  have  joined  in  the  national  program 
which  the  new  Government  proclaimed  and  which  it  is  striving  to 
fulfill. 

This  program  reads: 

'The  Provisional  Government,  rejecting,  in  accord  with  the  whole 
people  of  Russia,  all  thought  of  separate  peace  puts  it  openly  as  its 
deliberate  purpose  the  promptest  achievement  of  universal  peace; 
such  peace  to  presume  no  dominion  over  other  nations,  no  seizure  of 


396  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


their  national  property  nor  any  forced  usurpation  of  foreign  terri- 
tory; peace  with  no  annexations  or  contributions,  based  upon  the 
free  determination  by  each  nation  of  its  destinies. 

Being  fully  convinced  that  the  establishment  of  democratic  prin- 
ciples in  its  internal  and  external  policy  has  created  a  new  factor  in 
the  striving  of  the  Allied  Democracies  for  durable  peace  and  fra- 
ternity of  all  nations,  the  Provisional  Government  will  take  prepara- 
tory steps  for  an  agreement  with  the  Allies  founded  on  its  declaration 
of  March  27th.  The  Provisional  Government  is  conscious  that  the 
defeat  of  Russia  and  her  Allies  would  be  the  source  of  the  greatest 
misery  and  would  not  only  postpone  but  even  make  impossible  the 
establishment  of  universal  peace  on  a  firm  basis.  The  Provisional 
Government  is  convinced  that  the  Revolutionary  Army  of  Russia 
will  not  allow  the  German  troops  to  destroy  our  Allies  on  the  West- 
ern Front  and  then  fall  upon  us  with  the  whole  might  of  their 
weapons.  The  chief  aim  of  the  Provisional  Government  will  be  to 
fortify  the  democratic  foundations  of  the  Army  and  organize  and 
consolidate  the  Army's  fighting  power  for  defensive  as  well  as 
offensive  purposes.' 

The  last  decision  of  the  Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  the  decision  of  the  All-Russian  Peasants'  Con- 
gress, the  decision  of  the  Duma,  the  voice  of  the  country  as  expressed 
from  day  to  day  by  almost  the  entire  Russian  press,  in  resolutions 
adopted  at  different  conferences  and  congresses — all  these  confirm 
their  full  support  to  this  national  program  and  leave  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  Russia  is  decided  as  to  the  necessity  to  fight  the  German 
autocracy  until  the  conditions  for  a  general  and  stable  peace  in 
Europe  are  established. 

Such  decision  is  becoming  more  and  more  evident  each  day  in 
practical  work  and  results  and  shows  itself  in  the  pressing  and  rapid 
reorganization  of  the  Army  which  is  now  being  fulfilled  under  the 
firm  and  efficient   measures   adopted   by   Minister  Kerensky. 

The  Russian  people  thoroughly  understand  and  are  fully  convinced 
that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  root  out  the  autocratic  principles 
which  underlie  and  are  represented  by  German  militarism  and  which 
threaten  the  peace,  the  freedom  and  the  happiness  of  ihe  world.  The 
Russian  people  feel  most  keenly  that  no  stable  peace  can  be  secured 
until  the  German  autocratic  principles  are  destroyed  and  that  other- 
wise the  Revolution  will  have  been  in  vain  and  its  achievements 
will  perish. 

New  Russia,  in  full  accord  with  the  motives  which  impelled  the 
Uttited  States  to  enter  the  war,  is  striving  to  destroy  tyranny,  to 
establish  peace  on  a  secure  and  permanent  foundation  and  to  make 
the  world  safe  for  Democracy. 

We  are  representing  here  the  political  unity  which  has  crystallized 


The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  States  397 


in  Russia  and  around  which  a  national  program  has  been  developed. 
To  our  host  of  friends  in  the  United  States  we  appeal  and  without 
distinction  of  party  or  class  we  will  work  hand  in  hand  for  the  com- 
mon cause." 


On  June  23rd  Ambassador  B.  A.  Bakhmeteff  made  the 
following  speech  before  the  House  of  Representatives: 

"Mr.  Speaker.  Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives:  I  am 
deeply  conscious  how  great  an  honor  has  been  conferred  on  me  and 
the  members  of  my  Mission  by  this  gracious  reception..  I  understand 
how  unusual  it  is  for  this  House  to  accord  to  foreigners  the  privilege 
of  the  floor.  I  realize  that  if  you  were  moved  to  make  such  an 
exception  it  was  due  to  the  great  and  most  extraordinary  historic 
events  which  have  been  and  are  now  taking  place  in  the  world. 

Great,  indeed,  is  the  honor  and  the  privilege  to  speak  here  in  this 
House,  exemplifying  as  it  does,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
— that  wonderful  document  which  embodies  so  clearly  and  yet  so 
tersely  the  principles  of  free  government  and  democracy. 

Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives:  When  addressing  you 
in  behalf  of  the  Government  of  the  people  of  New  Russia,  when  con- 
veying to  you  the  greeting  of  the  new-born  Russian  Democracy, .you 
will  conceive  how  impressed  I  am  by  the  historical  significance  of 
this  moment,  you  will  understand  why  my  emotions  do  overwhelm 
me.  During  the  last  few  months  Russia  has  really  lived  through 
events  of  world-wide  importance.  With  a  single  impulse  the  nation 
has  thrown  down  the  old  fetters  of  slavery.  Free,  she  is  entering 
now  the  dawn  of  new  life,  joining  the  ranks  of  Democracy,  striving 
for  the  happiness  and  the  freedom  of  the  world. 

Does  one  not  feel  occasionally  that  the  very  greatness  and  sig- 
nificance of  events  are  not  fully  appreciated  due  to  the  facility  and 
spontaneity  with  which  the  great  change  was  completed!  Is  it 
always  fully  realized  and  conceived  what  it  really  means  to  humanity, 
that  a  nation  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  millions,  a  country  boundless 
in  expanse,  has  been  suddenly  set  free  form  the  worst  of  oppression, 
has  been  given  the  joy  and  happiness  of  a  free,  self-conscious  ex- 
istence! 

With  what  emotions  are  inspired  we — who  have  come  to  you  as 
messengers  of  these  great  events,  as  bearers  of  the  new  principles 
proclaimed  by  the  Russian  Revolution! 

May  I  be  permitted  to  reiterate  the  expression  of  the  feelings  that 
stir  our  hearts,  and,  impressed  as  I  am  by  the  might  and  grandeur  of 
the  wonderful  events,  welcome  and  greet  you  on  behalf  of  free  Russia. 

Here,  at  the  very  cradle  of  representative  government,  I  feel  it 
proper  to  recall  the  very  moments  of  birth  of  constitutional  life  in 
Russia  which  presented  themselves  some  twelve  years  ago,  at  the  time 


398  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  the  first  Russian  Revolution.  It  was  then  that  the  Duma  came 
into  being.  From  the  very  inception  of  this  Assembly  the  old 
authority  endeavored  to  curtail  the  powers  that  had  been  conferred 
on  it.  Its  very  existence  was  an  uninterrupted  struggle;  but  in  spite 
thereof,  notwithstanding  the  limitations  and  narrowness  of  the  election 
laws,  the  Duma  was  bound  to  play  a  most  important  part  in  the 
national  life  of  Russia. 

It  was  the  very  fact  of  the  being  of  a  representative  body  which 
proved  to  be  so  fruitful  and  powerful.  It  was  that  mysterious  force 
of  representation,  the  force  which  draws  everything  into  the  whirlpool 
of  legislative  power,  the  force  the  existence  of  which  your  American 
framers  of  the  Constitution  so  deeply  recognized  and  understood,  it 
was  that  force  which  led  the  Duma,  however  limited,  to  express  the 
feelings  of  Russia  and  frame  her  hopes  during  the  world's  great 
crisis,  and  made  the  Duma  ultimately  the  center  and  the  hope  of 
national  life. 

It  was  the  Duma,  which,  at  the  epoch  when  the  old  authority  by 
vicious  and  inefficient  management  had  disorganized  the  supplies  of 
the  country  and  brought  the  military  operations  to  unprecedented 
reverses — it  was  the  Duma,  which,  with  energy  and  devotion,  called 
the  people  to  organize  national  defense  and  appealed  to  the  vital 
forces  of  the  country  to  meet  the  German  attack  and  save  the  nation 
from  definite  subjugation.  Again,  when  it  appeared  that  the  short- 
sighted Government,  which  never  took  advantage  of  the  patriotic 
enthusiasm  and  national  sacrifice,  was  not  only  incapable  of  leading 
the  war  to  a  successful  end,  but  would  inevitably  bring  Russia  to 
military  collapse  and  economic  and  social  ruin — it  was  the  Duma 
again  which  at  that  terrible  hour  proclaimed  the  nation  in  danger. 
It  was  at  the  feet  of  the  Duma  that  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution 
deposed  their  banners  and,  giving  allegiance,  brought  the  Revolution 
to  a  successful  issue.  It  was  then  that  from  the  ruins  of  the  old 
regime  emerged  a  new  order  embodied  in  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, a  youthful  offspring  of  the  old  Duma  procreated  by  the  forces 
of  the  Revolution. 

Instead  of  the  old  forms,  there  is  now  being  firmly  established 
and  deeply  embedded  in  the  minds  of  the  nation  the  principle  that 
power  is  reposed  in  and  springs  from,  and  only  from,  the  people. 
To  effectuate  this  principle  and  to  enact  appropriate  fundamental 
laws,  that  is  going  to  be  the  main  function  of  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly  which   is  to  be   convoked   as   promptly   as   possible. 

This  Assembly,  elected  on  a  democratic  basis,  is  to  represent  the 
will  and  constructive  power  of  the  nation.  It  will  inaugurate  the  forms 
of  future  political  existence  as  well  as  establish  the  fundamental  basis 
of  the  economic  structure  of  future  Russia.  Eventually  all  main 
questions  of  national   being  will  be   brought  before,  and  will  be   de- 


The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  States  399 

cided  by  the  Constituent  Assembly:  constitution,  civil  and  criminal 
law,  administration,  nationalities,  conditions  of  labor,  annihilation  of 
all  restrictive  legislation,  encouragement  of  intense  and  fruitful  de- 
velopment of  the  country.  Such  are  the  tasks  of  the  Assembly,  the 
aspirations  and  hopes  of  the  nation. 

Members  of  the  House:  Don't  you  really  feel  that  the  Assembly 
is  expected  to  bring  into  life  once  more  the  grand  principle  which 
your  illustrious  President  so  aptly  expressed  into  the  sublime  words, 
'Government  by  consent  of  the   governed'! 

It  is  the  Provisional  Government  that  is  governing  Russia  at 
present.  It  is  the  task  of  the  Provisional  Government  to  conduct 
Russia  safely  to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Guided  by  democratic  pre- 
cepts the  Provisional  Government  meanwhile  is  reorganizing  the 
country  on  the  basis  of  freedom,  equality  and  self-government,  is  re- 
building  its   economic   and   financial   structure. 

The  outstanding  feature  of  the  present  Government  is  its  recogni- 
tion of  the  principles  of  legality  as  fundamental  and  all  important. 
It  is  manifestly  understood  in  Russia  that  law,  having  its  origin  in 
the  people's  will,  is  the  substance  of  the  very  existence  of  the  State. 

Reposing  confidence  in  such  rule,  the  Russian  people  are  render- 
ing to  the  new  authorities  their  support.  The  people  are  realizing 
more  and  more  that  for  the  very  sake  of  further  freedom  law  must 
be  maintained  and  manifestation  of  anarchy  suppressed.  In  this 
respect  local  life  has  exemplified  the  wonderful  exertion  of  spon- 
taneous public  spirit  which  has  contributed  most  effectively  to  the 
process  of  self-organization  of  the  nation.  On  many  occasions,  fol- 
lowing the  removal  of  the  old  authorities,  a  newly  elected  administra- 
tion has  naturally  arisen,  conscious  of  national  interest  and  often 
developing  in  its  spontaneity  amazing  examples  of  practical  states- 
manship. 

It  is  these  conditions  which  prove  that  the  Provisional  Government 
is  gaining  every  day  importance  and  power,  is  gaining  capacity  to 
check  elements  of  disorder  arising  either  from  attempts  of  reaction 
or  extremism.  At  the  present  time  the  Provisional  Government  has 
started  to  take  most  decisive  measures  in  that  respect,  employing 
force  when  necessary,  although  always  striving  for  a  peaceful  solu- 
tion. 

The  last  resolutions  which  have  been  framed  by  the  Council  of 
Workingmen,  the  Council  of  Peasants  and  other  democratic  or- 
ganizations render  the  best  proof  of  the  general  understanding  of  the 
necessity  of  creating  strong  power.  The  coalitionary  character  of 
the  new  Cabinet,  which  includes  eminent  Socialist  leaders  and  repre- 
sents all  the  vital  elements  of  the  nation,  therefore  enjoying  its  full 
support,    is    most    effectively    securing    the    unity    and    power    of    the 


400  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

central  Government,  the  lack  of  which  was  so  keenly  felt  during  the 
first  two  months  after  the  Revolution. 

Realizing  the  grandeur  and  complexity  of  the  present  events  and 
conscious  of  the  danger  which  is  threatening  the  very  achievements 
of  the  Revolution,  the  Russian  people  are  gathering  around  the  new 
Government,  united  on  a  'national  program.' 

It  is  this  program  of  'national  salvation'  which  has  united  the 
middle  classes  as  well  as  the  populists,  the  labor  elements  and  Social- 
ists. Deep  political  wisdom  has  been  exhibited  by  subordinating 
various  class  interests  and  differences  to  national  welfare.  In  this 
way  this  Government  is  supported  by  an  immense  majority  of  the 
nation,  and  outside  of  the  reactionaries  is  being  opposed  only  by 
comparatively  small   groups    of    extremists    and   internationalists. 

As  to  foreign  policy,  Russia's  national  program  has  been  clearly 
set  forth  in  the  statement  of  the  Provisional  Government  of  March 
27th  and  more  explicitly  in  the  declaration  of  the  new  Government 
of  May  18th. 

With  all  emphasis  may  I  state  that  Russia  rejects  any  idea  of 
separate  peace.  I  am  aware  that  rumors  were  circulated  in  this  country 
that  a  separate  peace  seemed  probable.  I  am  happy  to  affirm  that 
such  rumors  were  wholly  without  foundation  in  fact. 

What  Russia  is  aiming  for  is  the  establishment  of  a  firm  and 
lasting  peace  between  democratic  nations.  The  triumph  of  German 
autocracy  would  render  such  peace  impossible.  It  would  be  the 
source  of  the  greatest  misery  and  besides  that  be  a  threatening  menace 
to  Russia's  freedom.  The  Provisional  Government  is  making  all 
endeavor  to  reorganize  and  fortify  the  Army  for  action  in  common 
with  its  Allies. 

Members  of  the  House,  I  will  close  my  address  by  saying:  'Russia 
will  not  fail  to  be  a  worthy  partner  in  the  League  of  Honor.'  " 


THE  following-  is  the  address  Ambassador  B.  A.  Bakh- 
meteff  delivered  before  the  United  States  Senate,  on 
June  26.  1917: 
"Mr.  President,  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate:  At  the  outset  permit 
me  to  express  to  you  sincere  thanks  and  keen  appreciation  for  the 
warm  reception  you  have  so  graciously  given  to  the  members  of  the 
Mission  and  to  myself.  Great  is  the  honor  you  have  bestowed  upon 
me  by  permitting  me  to  address  your  distinguished  body,  abrogating 
thus  a  custom  which  has  been  upheld  for  more  than  a  century,  but 
still  more  gratifying  is  the  expression  of  cordial  sympathy  and 
friendly  feeling  which  have  been  so  manifestly  exhibited  by  your 
reception. 

From   the  moment   of  our   arrival    in   this    country  we  have   been 


The  Russian  Mission  to  the  I  nited  States  K)l 


deeply  affected  by  the  extraordinary  greeting  accorded  us  and  by  the 
constant  expression  of  heart)-  welcome  and  sincere  sympathy  with 
which  we  have  been  hailed  from  all  sides. 

That  bonds  of  friendship  and  sympathy  united  the  people  of  the 
two  nations  we  knew  before  we  departed  from  Russia.  This  was 
amply  manifested  during  the  early  days  of  the  Revolution.  The  act 
of  prompt  recognition  of  our  new  Government  has  been  of  incalculable 
value.  For  the  brotherly  encouragement  which  you  gave  us,  and  for 
the  noble  manner  in  which  you  so  generously  stretched  forth  a  help- 
ing hand  we  are  here,  in  behalf  of  the  New  Russia,  to  express  to  you 
our  deepest  and  most  heartfelt  gratitude. 

We  have  come  here  as  well  to  make  clear  the  spirit  and  meaning 
of  the  great  events  taking  place  in  our  country.  A  thorough  under- 
standing is  indispensable  to  enable  our  Mission  to  accomplish  the 
important  task  of  establishing  close  and  effective  cooperation  be- 
tween  the  two  countries   for  common  action  and  for   common   cause. 

With  the  greatest  of  hopes  do  I  look  forward  to  the  results  of  such 
cooperation,  so  vital  to  our  mutual  desire  to  form  a  league  of  honor 
among  free  nations  on  the  smoking  ruins  of  German  autocratic 
militarism.  At  this  moment  all  eyes  are  turned  to  Russia.  Many 
hopes  and  many  doubts  are  raised  by  the  tide  of  events  in  the  greatest 
of  revolutions,  at  an  epoch  of  the  world's  greatest  war.  Justifiable 
is  the  attention,  lawful  the  hopes  and  naturally  conceivable  the 
anxiety.  The  fate  of  nations,  the  fate  of  the  world  is  at  stake,  all 
dependent  on  the  fate  of  Russia. 

Freedom  and  peace  will  be,  the  blessings  of  the  future  if  Russia 
happily  emerges  from  the  struggle  as  a  powerful  democracy,  spark- 
ling with  the  gallantry  of  her  Army,  returning  from  fields  won  in 
common  strife  with  her  Allies. 

An  unprecedented  epoch  of  spiritual  depression,  a  new  period  of 
strenuous  and  anxious  military  preparation  would  follow  should  Rus- 
sia fail  to  accomplish  her  task  of  political  regeneration  or  should  she 
collapse   for  economical   reasons  or   the   inefficiency   of  her   arms. 

In  all  frankness  and  sincerity  do  I  expose  my  cause,  confident  of 
your  good  will  and  paying  tribute  to  the  manifest  feelings  of  sympa- 
thy, may  I  say,  affection.  I  am  not  going  to  conceal  the  gravity  ol 
the  situation  that  confronts  the  Russian  Provisional  Government. 
The  Revolution  called  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  very  foundations 
of  our  national  life.  It  is  not  easy  to  comprehend  what  it  means  to 
organize  all  of  Russia  on  democratic  lines.  Such  work  involves  the 
whole  of  our  social,  economic  and  political  relations.  The  entire  State 
structure  is  affected  by  the  changes,  involving  village,  district,  county, 
in  fact.  ev«ii^town  from  the  smallest  to  the  central  State.  The  crea- 
tion anew  lof^coTrrrtry  of  boundless  expanse  on  distinctly  new  prin- 
ciples will,  of  course,  take  time,  and  impatience  should  not  be  shown 


492  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


in  the  understanding  of  so  grand  an  event  as  Russia's  entry  into  the 
ranks  of  free  nations. 

We  should  not  forget  that  in  this  immense  transformation  various 
interests  will  seek  to  assert  themselves,  and  until  the  work  of  settle- 
ment is  completed  a  struggle  among  opposing  currents  is  inevitable 
and  exaggerations  cannot  be  avoided.  Attempts  on  the  part  of  dis- 
organizing elements  to  take  advantage  of  this  moment  of  transition 
must  be  expected  and  met  with  calmness  and  confidence. 

In  exposing  to  you  a  .true  picture  of  the  situation  I  feel  that  it  is 
my  duty  to  present  to  you  two  considerations  which  make  me  feel 
that  Russia  has  passed  the  stage  when  the  future  appeared  vague  and 
uncertain.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  the  firm  conviction  of  the  necessity 
of  legality  which  is  widely  developing  and  firmly  establishing  itself 
throughout  the  country.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Russian  people  this 
principle  of  legality  is  based  on  the  fertile  democratic  doctrine  that 
Governments  derive  their  just  power  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned and  hence  that  a  strong  Government  must  be  created  by  the 
will  of  the  people. 

Three  days  ago,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  I  stated  that  a 
strong  majority  of  the  Russian  people  had  united  around  the  Coalition 
Cabinet  on  a  national  program.  I  mentioned  the  confidence  and  pow- 
erful support  which  the  Government  is  at  present  enjoying  and 
which  from  day  to  day  gives  it  more  strength  and  determination  not 
only  to  suppress  acts  of  lawlessness  on  the  part  of  disorganizing 
forces,  but  also  to  carry  out  the  constructive  work  of  national  organ- 
ization. My  latest  advices  give  joyful  confirmation  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  firm  power,  strong  in  its  democratic  precepts  and  activity, 
strong  in  the  trust  reposed  in  it  by  the  people,  in  its  ability  to 
enforce  law  and  order. 

In  the  second  place,  and  no  less  important,  is  the  growing  con- 
viction that  the  issues  of  the  Revolution  and  the  future  of  Russia's 
freedom  are  closely  connected  with  the  fighting  might  of  the  country. 
It  is  such  power,  it  is  the  force  of  arms  which  alone  can  define  and 
make  certain  the  achievements  of  the  Revolution  against  autocratic 
aggression. 

There  has  been  a  period,  closely  following  the  Revolution,  of  almost 
total  suspension  of  all  military  activity,  a  period  of  what  appeared 
to  be  disintegration  of  the  Army,  a  period  which  gave  rise  to  serious 
doubts  and  to  gloomy  forebodings.  At  the  same  time  there  ensued 
unlimited  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press  which  afforded  oppor- 
tunities for  expression  of  the  most  extreme  and  anti-national  views, 
from  all  of  which  resulted  widespread  rumors  throughout  the  world 
that  Russia  would  abandon  the  war  and  conclude  a  separate  peace 
with  the  Central  Powers. 

With  all  emphasis  and  with  the  deepest  conviction  may  I  reiterate 


The  Russian  Mission  to  the  United  Statss  403 


the  statement  that  such  rumors  are  wholly  without  foundation  in  fact. 
Russia  rejects  with  indignation  any  idea  of  separate  peace.  What 
my  country  is  striving  for  is  the  establishment  of  a  firm  and  lasting 
peace  between  democratic  nations.  Russia  is  firmly  convinced  that 
a  separate  peace  would  mean  the  triumph  of  German  autocracy, 
would  render  lasting  peace  impossible,  would  create  the  greatest 
danger  for  Democracy  and  liberty  and  be  an  everthreatening  menace 
to  the  new-born  freedom  of  Russia. 

These  rumors  were  due  to  misapprehension  of  the  significance  of 
the  eventful  processes  of  reorganization  which  the  Army  was  to 
undergo  as  a  result  of  the  emancipation  of  the  country.  Like  the 
nation,  the  Army,  an  offspring  of  the  people,  had  to  be  rebuilt  on 
democratic  lines.  Such  work  takes  time,  and  friction  and  partial 
disorganization  must  be  overcome.  To  adopt  new  principles  to  a 
body  so  huge  and  so  very  important  as  is  a  modern  army  is  no 
simple  task.  Patience  is  required  to  mold  it  in  accordance  with 
forms  of  democracy  and  personal  liberty,  preserving  at  the  same 
time  the  discipline  so  essential  for  success  on  the  field  of  battle. 

One  must  also  realize  that  the  times  have  passed  when  the  fates 
of  nations  could  be  decided  by  an  irresponsible  Government  or  by  a 
few  individuals  and  when  the  people  shed  their  blood  for  issues  to 
them  unknown.  We  live  in  a  democratic  epoch  where  people  who 
sacrifice  their  lives  should  fully  realize  the  principles  for  which  they 
are  fighting. 

Just  as  the  Russian  people  had  to  undergo  a  process  of  reorgan- 
ization and  political  revolution,  so  also  did  the  Army.  It  was  neces- 
sary for  it  to  outlive  illusions  and  deceptions,  and  to  rally  around 
a  program  of  historical  necessity  and  national  truth. 

The  national  program  of  the  Government  calls  for  effective  or- 
ganization and  consolidation  of  the  Army's  fighting  power  for  offen- 
sive as  well  as  defensive  purposes.  This  is  the  outcome,  the 
crystallization  of  the  will  of  the  people.  This  is  the  war  program  of 
the  nation  which  has  rallied  around  the  Government,  the  Democracy 
of  Russia,  giving  its  leaders  vigor  and  strength. 

Conscious  of  the  enormous  task,  the  Provisional  Government  is 
taking  measures  to  promptly  restore  throughout  the  country  the 
conditions  of  life  so  deeply  disorganized  by  the  inefficiency  of  the 
previous  rulers  and  to  provide  for  whatever  is  necessary  for  military 
success.  In  this  respect  exceptional  and  grave  conditions  call  for 
exceptional  means.  In  close  touch  with  the  Pan-Peasant  Congress, 
the  Government  has  taken  control  of  stores  of  food  supplies  and 
is  providing  for  effective  transportation  and  just  distribution.  Fol- 
lowing examples  of  other  countries  at  war,  the  Government  has 
undertaken  the  regulation  of  the  production  of  main  products  vital 
for  the  country  and  the  Army.     The  Government  at   the  same   time 


404  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


is  making  all  endeavor  to  settle  labor  difficulties,  taking  measures 
for  the  welfare  of  workmen,  consistent  with  active  production  neces- 
sitated by  national  welfare. 

As  to  the  Army,  the  process  of  crystallization  of  the  national 
will  is  expressing  itself  in  a  growing  sentiment  of  general  and  com- 
mon appreciation  of  the  events  and  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
situation. 

Peaceful  in  its  intentions,  striving  for  a  lasting  peace,  based  on 
democratic  principles  and  established  by  democratic  will,  the  Russian 
people  and  its  Army  are  rallying  their  forces  around  the  banners  of 
freedom,  strengthening  their  ranks  in  cheerful  self-consciousness, 
to  die  but  not  to  be  slaves. 

Russia  wants  the  world  to  be  safe  for  Democracy.  '  To  make  it 
safe  means  to  have  Democracy  rule  the  world." 


CHAPTER  XII 

On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive 

A     FTER   months   of   fiery   debates,    at   many   conferences 

/-\       and  conventions  of  Workmen's,   Soldiers',   Peasants' 

■*-    ^     and     Cossacks'    Delegates,    as    to    what   the    military 

policy  of  Revolutionary  Russia  should  be,  on  July   1,    1917, 

the  Russian  Army  started  its  offensive. 

This  offensive  is  closely  associated  with  A.  F.  Kerensky's 
name.  As  Minister  of  War,  Kerensky  accomplished  an  enor- 
mous and,  as  we  shall  see  later,  an  extremely  difficult  task  in 
bringing  the  Army  to  an  offensive.  But,  with  all  due  credit 
to  Kerensky's  personal  efforts,  it  must  be  stated  most  emphat- 
ically that  in  all  his  endeavors  he  merely  executed  the  supreme 
will  of  the  Russian  Democracy  which,  through  its  various 
organs,  was  urging  the  Army  and  its  leaders  to  begin  an 
active  policy.  If  the  offensive  ended  in  disaster,  if  the  policy 
of  an  offensive  at  that  time  were  to  be  criticised  now.  in  the 
light  of  the  latest  events,  this  criticism  should  be  directed  not 
against  Kerensky  but  against  all  the  organized  bodies  of  the 
Russian  Democracy  which  influenced  and  directed  the  policy 
of  the  Provisional  Government. 

We  will  quote  from  a  resolution  adopted  on  June  25,  five 
days  before  the  offensive  started,  by  the  All-Russian  Congress 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  At  this  Congress 
were  represented  305  local  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Delegates.  One  thousand  and  ninety  Delegates  were 
present ;  among  others,  there  were  twenty-one  representatives 
from  the  front.  So,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Congress  repre- 
sented, to  a  very  considerable  degree,  the  Russian  proletariat 
and  Army.* 

This  Congress  said  in  its  resolution  regarding  the  war: 
"The  Congress  reiterates  that  as  long  as  the  war  is  not  ended 
through  the  efforts  of  the  democratic  elements  of  all  nations. 


♦The  representation,  according  to  main  parties,  was  as  follows:  Social- 
ists-Revolutionists— 285:  Mensheviki — 248;  Bolsheviki — 105;  Non-Partisan 
Socialists — 73;  Internationalists — 32;  Bund — 10;  "Edinstvo"  (Plekhanov's 
Group) — 3. 


406  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  must,  in  every  way 
possible,  help  to  strengthen  the  fighting  power  of  the  Army 
and  its  capacity  for  defensive  and  offensive  operations,  be- 
cause the  disruption  of  the  Russian  Front  would  be  a  defeat  of 
the  Russian  Revolution  and  a  heavy  blow  to  the  cause  of 
international  Democracy.  The  Congress  thinks  that  the  ques- 
tion of  an  offensive  must  be  decided  exclusively  from  the 
point  of  view  of  purely  military  and  strategic  considerations." 
On  July  18,  two  weeks  after  the  offensive  started,  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Workmen's, 
Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  issued  the  following  joint 
appeal  to  the  Army : 

"Comrades — Soldiers!  The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Councils  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  and  the  All-Russian  Congress  of 
Peasants'  Delegates  have  equally  recognized  the  necessity  for  fortify- 
ing and  strengthening  the  military  might  of  the  Army  and  its  power 
for  defensive  and  offensive  operations  as  long  as  the  war  lasts. 

The  workingmen,  soldiers  and  peasants  who  have  come  from  all 
over  Russia  and  from  all  parts  of  the  front  recognize  that  the  Com- 
manding Staff  alone  may  decide  as  to  place  and  time  for  an  offensive. 

Now  the  military  authorities,  acting  under  the  direct  leadership 
of  our  comrade,  Minister  of  War  Kerensky,  have  given  orders  to 
advance.  The  revolutionary  troops  on  the  Southwestern  Front  are 
obeying  this  order  heroically,  knowing  that  they  are  performing  a 
great  service  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  the  cause  of  peace  and  the 
cause  of  the  Revolution. 

The  offensive  has  begun.  Our  brothers  are  shedding  their  blood 
for  the  common  cause.  All  discord  must  vanish  now.  All  must  help 
those  who  stand  in  the  front  ranks  under  the  enemy's  fire.  Not  to 
come  to  their  assistance  now  would  mean  to  subject  them  to  the 
danger  of  annihilation,  would  mean  a  betrayal  of  the  Fatherland  and 
the  Revolution. 

And  yet  there  are  newspapers,  which,  by  their  articles  and  ap- 
peals, create  confusion  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  ready  to  hasten 
to  the  assistance  of  our  heroic  Army  and  weaken  their  enthusiasm 
to  support  the  revolutionary  soldiers  on  the  Southwestern  Front. 

Beware,  comrades,  for  these  papers,  no  matter  what  they  are 
called,  whether  it  be  'The  Truth'  or  'The  Soldier's  Truth,'  are  directly 
antagonistic  to  the  clearly  expressed  will  of  the  workers,  soldiers 
and  peasants  who  have  met  at  the  All-Russian  Congress. 

Beware,  comrades,  for  even  worse  things  are  happening  every- 
where. These  very  imprudent  articles  and  appeals  of  these  papers 
are  being  made  use  of  by  scoundrelly-spying  gendarmes,  policemen. 


A.  F.  KERENS KY 

During  his  visit  to  the  Front,  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Russian  Armies. 


A.  F.  KERENSKY 
During  his  tour  along  the  Front. 


On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive  409 


who  use  these  to  accomplish  their  black  work  of  sedition,  to  call  you 
to  betray  your  own  brothers,  who  are  giving  their  lives  for  our 
common   cause. 

Comrades — warriors!     In  the  name  of  the  All-Russian   Council   of 
Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates,  we  say  to  you: 
Obey  only  the  call  of  the  All-Russian   Council! 
Carry  out  all  the  war  orders  of  your  military   Commander! 
Be   ready,   every  one  of  you,   at  the  first   order   to   march   out   to 
the  assistance  of  your  brothers! 

Let  them  know  that  all  Revolutionary  Russia  is  behind  them!-' 
This  was  the  voice  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All- 
Russian  Council  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Dele- 
gates. The  Cossacks'  judgment,  regarding  the  war  policy, 
was  voiced  in  the  following  resolution,  unanimously  adopted 
by  the  All-Russian  Cossacks'  Congress  on  June  27 : 

"The  All-Russian  Cossacks'  Congress  holds  that  the  only  means 
for  obtaining  the  peace  so  needed  for  the  proper  up-building  of  the 
Government  appears  to  be  an  immediate  and  decisive  offensive. 
There  must  be  no  separate  peace.  The  war  must,  in  complete 
harmony  with  our  Allies,  be  brought  to  a  victory  that  will  make 
possible  the  conclusion  of  peace  on  the  basis  of  the  complete  self- 
determination  of  all  nations,  without  forcible  annexations  or  punitive 
indemnities. 

The  Congress  greets  all  the  live  Russian  forces  and  Army  units 
that  are  preserving  their  courage  and  sensible  discipline,  and  calls 
upon  all  citizens  of  Russia  to  support  the  Liberty  Loan  and  to  give 
everything  possible  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Deserters  and 
all  those  who  carry  on  agitation  which  disorganizes  the  country  and 
destroys  the  strength  of  the  Army,  the  Congress  declares  traitors  to 
the  country,  and  draws  the  attention  of  the  Provisional  Government 
to  the  necessity  for  taking  the  most  resolute  measures  against  de- 
serters and  against  criminal  agitators  as  well." 

On  June  16,  the  Duma,  in  private  session,  after  speeches 
by  S.  I.  Shidlovsky,  A*.  V.  Shulgin,  P.  X.  Miliukov  and 
V.  A.  Maklakov,  had  adopted  the  following  resolution  : 

"A  separate  peace  with  Germany  or  an  actual  truce  with  her.  a 
withdrawal  on  the  part  of  Russia  from  the  struggle  just  at  the  time 
when  the  other  powers  are  making  self-sacrificing  efforts  in  order 
to  conclude  the  struggle,  would  be  base  treachery  towards  the  Allies. 
a  treachery  for  which  posterity  will  not  forgive  our  generation.  If 
we  conclude  a  separate  peace,  Germany  will  have  completely  achieved 
the  aims  which  she  set  out  to  achieve.  This  peace  will  cut  Russia 
off  morally  from  the  rest  of  Europe.     Russia's  name  will  be  scorned 


410  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


for  decades  in  all  countries  where  loyalty  is  respected  and  treachery 
branded.  Concluding  such  a  peace,  Russia,  fenced  off  from  the  rest 
of  the  world  by  this  impassable  mountain  chain  of  countries  allied 
with  Germany,  will  have  to  submit  to  all  the  demands  of  this  alliance, 
and  will  become  for  it  a  field  for  exploitation  and  profiteering.  The 
great  Russia  will  be  transformed  into  a  German  colony,  which  will 
be  exploited  in  accordance  with  the  theories,  worked  out  by  the 
German  scientists,  that  Slavdom,  as  an  inferior  race,  must  serve  only 
as  a  soil  for  the  flourishing  of  German  culture. 

In  this  critical  hour,  the  members  of  the  Duma  consider  it  their 
duty  to  remind  the  country  that  Russia  is  now  faced  with  the  terrible 
question:  to  be  or  not  to  be.  The  Duma  considers  it  its  duty  to 
appeal  to  Russia,  to  all  citizens,  and  in  particular  to  the  warriors 
of  Russia,  reminding  them  that  the  fate  of  the  Fatherland  is  in  their 
own  hands,  that  to  retreat  from  the  international  humane  cause  bind- 
ing us  to  the  Allies  means  to  become  the  slaves  of  the  German  people. 

The  Duma  recognizes  that  only  in  an  immediate  offensive, 
in  a  close  union  with  the  Allies,  lies  the  sole  hope  of  a  speedy  liquida- 
tion of  the  war  and  the  strengthening  of  the  liberties  won  by  the 
people." 

The  above-given  resolutions  show  clearly  that  A.  F.  Keren- 
sky  had  behind  him  all  the  classes  of  the  Russian  Democracy 
when,  on  the  eve  of  the  offensive,  he,  as  Minister  of  War, 
issued  the  following  command  to  the  Army : 

"Russia,  liberated  from  the  chains  of  slavery,  is  firmly  resolved  to 
protect,  at  all  costs,  the  rights  of  honor  and  liberty.  With  faith  in 
the  fraternal  feelings  of  nations,  the  Russian  Democracy  called  upon 
the  warring  countries  to  cease  the  carnage  and  to  conclude  an  honor- 
able peace,  securing  tranquility  for  all  nations;  but,  in  response  to  this 
fraternal   appeal,   the  enemy  has   proposed  treason. 

The  Austro-Germans  have  offered  Russia  a  separate  peace  and 
tried  to  blind  our  vigilance  by  fraternization,  hurling  themselves  at 
the  same  time  against  our  Allies  with  the  hope  of  crushing  us  after 
their  defeat.  Convinced  now  that  Russia  will  not  allow  herself  to 
be  tricked,  the  enemy  is  threatening  us  and  concentrating  troops  on 
our  front. 

Warriors,  our  Motherland  is  in  danger.  Our  freedom  and  the 
Revolution  are  in  peril.  The  time  has  come  when  our  Army  must 
accomplish  its  duty.  Your  Commanding  General,  beloved  through 
victory,  proclaims  that  each  day  lost  adds  new  strength  to  our  enemy, 
and  that  only  an  immediate,  decisive  blow  can  disrupt  the  plans  of 
the  foe. 

Therefore,  fully  conscious  of  the  great  responsibility  of  the  coun- 
trv.  in  the  name  of  the  free   Russian  people  and  its  Provisional  Gov- 


On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive  411 


eminent,  I  call  upon  the  Armies,  invigorated  by  the  Revolution,  to 
start  the  offensive.  The  enemy  must  wait  before  celebrating  victory. 
All  nations  must  know  that  it  was  not  through  weakness  that  we 
talked  peace.  Let  them  know  that  liberty  strengthens  our  forces. 
Officers  and  soldiers,  you  must  realize  that  all  Russia  is  blessing  your 
acts  on  the  field  of  honor.  In  the  name  of  liberty,  future  prosperity, 
and  in  the  name  of  a  lasting  and  honorable  peace,  I  command  you, 
'Forward!'  " 


OF  the  many  occurrences  of  this  period,  the  eve  of  the 
Revolutionary  offensive,  of  special  interest  is  ihe 
verbal  duel  between  Lenine,  later  the  head  of  the 
Bolsheviki  Government,  and  Kerensky  at  the  All-Russian 
Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  on  June  22. 
Lenine  suggested  the  immediate  overthrow  of  the  capitalistic 
system,  arguing  that  otherwise  it  is  impossible  to  end  the  war. 
He  admitted  that  Germany  had  conquered  much  territory,  but 
had  also  lost  much  ;  England  had  also  taken  much  territory. 
He  declared  it  doubtful  that  she  would  return  it  of  her  own 
accord. 

Lenine  was  indignant  over  the  fact  that  the  Bolsheviki 
were  accused  of  desiring  a  separate  peace :  "Down  with 
separate  peace,"  he  cried;  "we  will  never  consent  to  it!"  In 
concluding,  he  expressed  his  firm  conviction  that  the  chances 
are  nine  to  one  of  his  tactics  being  successful,  and  read  a  letter 
from  a  peasant  who  approved  the  tactics  of  the  Bolsheviki. 

Kerensky  made  his  answer  to  Lenine  in  the  following  words, 
and   his  words  may  be  taken  as  the  answer  of  the   Russian 
Democracy  to  Bolshevism,  at  that  time. 
Kerensky's  Speech 

"My  fellow-citizen,  Lenine,  has  concluded  his  speech  with  a  quota- 
tion. Allow  me  also  to  begin  my  speech  with  the  quotation  from  a 
document.  You  remember  the  reply  of  the  Executive  Committee 
to  the  provocateur  appeal  of  Prince  Ludwig  of  Bavaria.  I  have  now 
before  me  a  new  wireless  message,  sent  out  on  June  7.  at  2  o'clock, 
a  response  to  the  reply  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates: 

'The  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  says  that  the 
Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy  is  unwavering  in  its  course  towards 
universal  peace.     This  is  also  our  aim.     But  to  attain  this  aim  only 


412  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


two  substantial  proposals  were  made,  and  both  by  us.  The  first 
peace  offer  was  made  by  the  Central  Powers  in  December,  1916. 
The  Central  Powers  offered  to  enter  into  peace  negotiations  at  an 
early  date,  in  order  to  avert  further  bloodshed  and  to  put  an  end 
to  the  horrors  of  war.  The  hand  which  we  proffered  was  re- 
jected by  the  Governments  of  the  Entente  with  a  sneer.  But  at 
that  time  Russia  was  dominated  by  the  Tzar.  Our  second  offer  was 
made  in  the  form  of  a  circular  proclamation  issued  by  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Commander-in-Chief.  The  Central  Powers  expressed  their 
readiness  to  appoint  their  authorized  representatives  for  the  pur- 
pose of  negotiating  about  the  war  aims  and  the  possibility  of  an 
armistice.  At  that  time  the  Tzar's  Government  was  no  longer  in 
existence  and  its  place  had  been  taken  by  the  Councils  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  What  was  the  answer  this  time?  Rus- 
sia wants  peace  •  without  annexations  and  without  indemnities,  but 
at  the  same  time  she  does  not  wish  to  renounce  her  treaties  with 
England.  France  and  Italy.  Do  you  know  of  these  treaties?  We, 
Germans,  do  not  know  their  exact  context,  but  we  know  what  England, 
France  and  Italy  want  of  us.  In  this  manner  is  one  of  the  specific  aims 
stated,  namely,  that  Austria-Hungary  is  to  cede  to  Italy  Trieste,  Tren- 
tino  and  Dalmatia.  Mr.  Ribot,  the  French  Prime  Minister,  said:  "We 
don't  want  any  conquests,  but  that  does  not  mean  that  we  have  re- 
nounced our  right  to  demand  Alsace-Lorraine.  We  will  fight  until 
these  Provinces  are  restored  to  our  country."  The  Provinces  about 
which  Mr.  Ribot  is  now  speaking  are  old  German  territory,  of  which 
we  were  robbed  200  years  ago.  Briand  wants  to  annex  the 
entire  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  River  and  the  German  colonies.  All 
this  is  sanctioned  by  England  and  the  former  Russian  Government. 
France.  England  and  Italy  are  demanding  vast  annexations, 
and  in  addition,  an  indemnity  of  100  billions,  and  Russia  wants 
peace  without  annexations  or  indemnities.  Is  this,  in  your  opinion, 
not  a  contradiction?  Wherein  lies  the  truth?  Are  there  any  war  aims 
of  the  Entente  Powers  which  Russia  has  not  rejected,  or  is  the  desire 
prevalent  to  make  the  peace  which  has  time  and  again  been  voiced  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Russian  Army?  If  the  new  Russian  Government,  at 
the  instigation  of  the  Allies,  wishes  to  be  convinced "  whether  the 
German  divisions  of  heavy  artillery  are  still  present  on  the  Eastern 
Front,  let  them  do  it.  Acting  in  this  way,  it  will,  of  course,  cleave 
away  from  the  idea  of  a  universal  peace  and  will  go  further 
along  the  road  upon  which  the  former  Russian  Government  so  suc- 
cessfully retreated,  namely,  the  road  that  leads  to  new  fraternal 
graves.  When  will  you  finally  become  convinced  that  your  grave- 
digger  is  England?  Even  as  13  years  ago.  she,  for  her  own  ends,  led 
you    into   war   with   Japan,    so    is    she   now    ruining  you    in    order    to 


On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive  413 


strengthen  her  world  domination.     Commander-in-Chief  of  the   Ger- 
man Eastern  Front.' 

Our  answer  to  this  was  prompt:  'Having  received  the  wireless 
message  intended  to  provoke  us,  we,  united  in  the  love  for  our 
country,  are  calling  upon  all  the  true  sons  of  Russia  to  brand  with 
contempt  this  new  declaration  of  the  German  fist;  we  call  upon  all 
to  place  their  fullest  confidence  in  our  Revolutionary  Government. 
We  go  and  shall  continue  to  go  down  to  the  old  graves  of  our 
brothers,  in  order  to  attain  happiness  and  liberty.  A  Division  of  the 
Russian  Revolutionary  Front.' 

We  are  called  upon  to  reject  a  separate  peace  with  our  own 
capitalists  and  we  are  told  that  in  this  manner  we  shall  best  aid  the 
triumph  of  the  Revolution.  This  is  practically  the  same  thing  that 
the  German  prince  is  offering  us.  (Applause.) 

We  are  being  told  that  England  wishes  to  ruin  us.  Is  it  not  a  fact 
that  the  Bolshevist  propositions  do  not  find  any  favorable  reception  in 
feudal  Germany?  What  we  are  advised  to  do  will  not  lead  to  the  be- 
ginning of  a  world  revolution,  but  to  the  end  of  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion. While  carrying  out  Lenine's  suggestion,  we  shall  lead  the  Rus- 
sian Democracy  out  of  the  historic  conditions  under  which  the  entire 
world  exists  and  rise  in  rebellion  against  the  laws  of  economic 
development.  Such  a  course  cannot  but  lead  to  ruin  and  failure  of 
those  principles  for  which  we  are  fighting." 

A.  F.  Kerensky  then  proceeded  to  discuss  the  policy  of  the 
Provisional  Government  as  regards  the  war  aims,  and  said  : 

"We  are  gradually  compelling  the  Government  of  Russia  and  the 
democratic  countries  to  accept  our  position.  You  heard  what  the 
representatives  of  the  majority  of  the  German  Social-Democratic 
Party  said  in  Stockholm.  If  you  will  compare  this  with  what  Ribot 
said,  you  will  see  that  there  is  not  such  a  wide  gulf  between  the 
two.   (Applause  from  the   Bolsheviki.) 

We  are  being  told  that  the  policy  of  the  Provisional  Government 
is  also  in  the  interests  of  the  capitalists.  Comrades,  there  is  a  limit 
where  ignorance  comes  in  contact  with  the  deliberate  distortion  of 
truth.  The  Provisional  Government  follows  the  course  dictated  by 
the  intelligence  of  the  Democracy  and  by  the  interests  of  Democ- 
racy the  world  over.  We  can  testify  that  our  international  policy 
yields  great  positive  results.  You  know  that  a  conference  for  the 
purpose  of  revising  the  treaties  has  already  become  possible.  We 
are  very  definitely  and  consistently  carrying  out  this  line  of  inter- 
national policy  which  alone  leads  to  the  successful  solution  of  the 
tasks  before  us.  And  yet.  we  are  being  told  that  we  are  doing  the 
will  of  the  Russian  capitalists  and  are  acting  under  the  influence  of 
Russian  bankers. 

If   this   were    so,    then    the    Cabinet    crisis    would    not    have    led    to 


414  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


a  Coalition  Government  with  Socialist  Ministers,  but  to  Milinkov's 
policy.  If  the  German  Social-Democrats  were  able  and  strong 
enough  to  compel  their  Government  to  follow  us,  they  would  have  to 
start  a  fight  in  their  own  country  first.  Lenine  knows  this.  And  if 
this  is  so,  why  did  not  Lenine  stop  in  Germany  while  on  his  way  to 
Russia  and  why  did  he  not  remain  there  to  preach  his  ideas,  (Loud 
applause.)  and,  if  necessary,  go  to  jail,  side  by  side  with  Liebknecht? 
(Protest  on  the  part  of  the   Bolsheviki.) 

We  are  being  invited  to  launch  upon  a  Socialist  and  social  adven- 
ture. We  cannot  follow  this  course.  We  are  at  present  organizing 
the  country  and  the  Army  so  that  the  Army  should  be  able  to  fight 
and  do  its  duty  whether  it  will  have  to  remain  on  the  defensive  or  on 
the  offensive.  We  know  that  a  passive  defensive  is  not  a  defensive, 
but  amounts  to  a  voluntary  consent  to  be  robbed.  And  there  was  a 
good  reason  for  Robert  Grimm  to  wire  via  Berlin  that  a  German 
offensive  on  our  front  would  endanger  the  cause  of  peace.  When  we 
do  not  wish  to  do  some  one  else's  will,  we  are  threatened  with  heavy 
artillery.  Now  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  Will  you  get 
scared?  (Shouts  from  the  majority  of  the  Conference:  "No!") 

We  are  being  told:  'Do  not  let  the  Allies  lead  you  by  the  nose.' 
The  Allies  do  not  lead  us  by  the  nose.  Just  now  the  Russian 
troops  have  been  absolutely  forbidden  to  land  together  with  the 
Allied  troops  near  Athens.  We  exert  an  influence  over  the  Allied 
Governments  that  are  more  democratic  than  the  Governments  of 
Germany  and  Austria,  through  our  Revolution  and  the  charm  of 
our  ideas.  We  are  helping  those  nations  that  want  liberty  and  the 
right  to  work  out  their  own  destinies,  but  we  must  first  of  all  safe- 
guard our  own  political  and  economic  freedom.  This  liberty  depends 
upon  what  resistance  it  can  offer  to  the  pressure  of  international 
capital.  We  are  being  told  that  the  German  Socialists  are  awaiting 
the  moment  when  we  shall  finally  persuade  the  Allies  to  consent  to 
our  terms  of  peace  on  the  principle  of  self-determination  of  nation- 
alities. Yes,  they  are  waiting,  but  meanwhile  helping  the  German 
Commander-in-Chief.  They  tell  us  that  we  are  in  favor  of  peace 
without  annexations  and  without  indemnities,  and  at  the  same  time 
we  continue  to  annex  the  Provinces  that  we  occupy;  for  instance,  we 
do  not  evacuate  the  free  republic  of  Armenia.  These  words  betray t 
such  profound  ignorance  of  the  conditions  on  our  Caucasus  front 
that  there  is  no  room  for  argument  here.   (Applause.) 

I  shall  not  answer  any  accusations  regarding  Finland  and  the 
Ukraine.  But,  relying  on  public  opinion  in  the  ranks  of  the  Russian 
Democracy,  I  say  that  in  time  of  war  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to 
effect  any  rearrangements  on  the  principle  of  nationalism.  (Voices: 
"Correct.")  Every  officer  and  soldier  understands  that  this  is  im- 
possible from  point  of  view  of  technique. 


On  the  Eve  of  the  Offensive  415 


Read  the  document  of  the  Finnish  Social-Democratic  Party  and 
you  will  understand  how  far  removed  from  the  truth  were  the  Bolshe- 
viki.  who  even  two  weeks  ago  denied  that  the  Finns  were  aspiring 
for  their  independence.  We  appeal  to  the  comrades  and  Socialists 
of  all  nationalities  residing  in  Russia,  and  say:  'Now  that  the  Russian 
Democracy  has  sounded  the  principle  of  self-determination  of  na- 
tionalities, do  not  adopt  any  tactics  that  would  destroy  the  brotherly 
union  of  all  the  toilers.  Come  with  us.  Do  not  let  yourselves  be 
carried  away  by  chauvinist  tendencies.'  In  so  far  as  these  aspirations 
are  menacing  the  Russian  Revolution,  we  say:  'This  must  not  be 
done.'  " 

A.  F.  Kerensky  further  stated  that  he  had  not  forbidden,  but 
had  only  refused  to  sanction  the  official  despatching  of  Dele- 
gates to  the  Socialist  Conference. 

''I  am  often  reproached  because  the  bourgeois  press  approves  of  my 
policy.  But  if  I  were  to  bring  here  press  comments  of  our  enemies 
and  if  I  were  to  show  that  it  favored  the  tactics  of  some  of  our 
Parties,  would  you  not  say  that  I  was  a  villain  and  a  scoundrel? 
(Boisterous  applause.) 

At  a  closed  session  I  gave  a  detailed  explanation  and  said  that 
it  was  my  task  to  transform  the  Russian  Army  into  a  revolutionary 
Army,  democratized  from  top  to  bottom,  while  preserving  within 
the  Army  the  iron  discipline  of  duty  towards  the  Revolution — such  an 
Army  for  which  personal  safety  and  welfare  are  subordinated  to  the 
common  good,  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the  triumph  of  those  ideas 
for  which,  one  can  sacrifice  his  happiness  and  life.  As  Minister  of 
War.  I  am  glad  to  testify  that  the  brains  of  the  Army  are  with  me 
and  I  with  them.   (Boisterous  applause.) 

As  Minister  of  War,  to  whom  the  pacification  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Army  is  a  task  of  primary  importance,  I  appeal  to  you, 
representatives  of  all  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates, 
to  give  your  moral  support  to  the  Russian  Revolution  and  to  its 
Government,  to  defend  it  against  anarchy  and  demoralizing  in- 
fluences, to  call  the  country  to  order  and  in  case  of  extreme  necessity 
to  authorize  us  to  use  every  means  at  our  command  in  order  to  pre- 
vent our  enemies  from  the  Right  from  triumphing  through  the  an- 
archy from  the  Left."   (Shouts:  "Please,  please!"  "Go  to  it!") 


CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Great  Crisis— July,  1917 

THE  offensive   started  on  July   1st  resulted  in   disaster 
because  of  the  mutiny  in  the  Russian  Army.     This,  to- 
gether with  an  offensive  started  by  the  Austro-German 
Army,  created  a  situation  where  the  Provisional  Government 
found  it  necessary  to  resort  to  extraordinary,  strict  measures 
to  restore  discipline  in  the  military  ranks. 

Due  to  the  crisis,  Prime-Minister  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  had 
resigned  from  the  Cabinet,  and  A.  F.  Kerensky  had  been  ap- 
pointed in  his  place,  retaining  the  portfolio  of  Minister  of  War. 
One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  Cabinet  was  the  following 
appeal  to  the  Army  issued  on  July  21,  1917: 

"Three  weeks  ago,  in  compliance  with  the  order  of  the  Minister 
of  War,  the  armies  of  the  Southwestern  Front,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  with  mighty  revolutionary  enthusiasm, 
started  an  offensive.  About  36,000  prisoners  of  war,  more  than  90 
guns  and  400  machine  guns  were  captured.  The  glorious  name  of 
the  'regiments  of  the  18th  of  June'*  will  henceforth  be  recorded  in 
the  history  of  the  Revolution.  These  heroic  fighters  placed  above 
their  personal  lives,  their  honor,  the  life  of  the  free  Fatherland  and 
the  salvation  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  which  was  threatened  by 
loyalty  to  Wilhelm's  bayonets  on  the  front  and  by  a  treacherous 
mutiny  in  the  rear. 

The  mutiny  in  the  rear  has  been  suppressed  by  the  people's 
authority,   but   the   Revolution   is   still   in   great   danger. 

Mustering  his  forces,  the  enemy  also  started  an  offensive. 
Let  his  insidious  plan  of  simultaneous  invasion  of  the  front  and 
treacherous  attack  from  the  rear  serve  to  unite  more  closely  all 
those  to  whom  Russia  and  her  liberty  are  not  empty  words. 

Soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  Armies!  Your  brothers  that  have 
gone  into  the  battle  with  red  flags  call  upon  you  to  join  them  in  the 
attack  for  the  defense  of  liberty,  for  just  terms  of  a  lasting  peace. 

By  the  will  of  the  revolutionary  people,  at  the  first  order  of  your 
military  superiors,  march  forward  in  close  ranks.  Save  liberty,  save 
the  Fatherland." 

The  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Southwestern  Front,  Gen- 
eral Kornilov,  addressed  the  following  appeal  to  the  troops : 

"Madness,     dishonor     and     treachery     of     several     parts     of     the 


♦June  18th  in  the  Russian  calendar  is  equivalent   to  July  1,  new   style. 


The  Great  Crisis — July,  191,  417 


Eleventh  and  Seventh  Armies  have  inscribed  dark  pages  in  the  history 
of  the  free  Russian  Army,  pages  which  will  be  remembered  forever 
and  ever.  The  Russian  Army  has  not  known  a  like  disgrace,  has  not 
suffered  such  degradation  from  the  very  beginning  of  its  existence, 
and  our  old  regimental  banners  have  never  been  abased  so  low  in  the 
hands  of  our  fathers  and  forefathers. 

During  these  gloomy  days  of  nightmare  only  the  fighting  valor 
of  the  infantry  regiments  who  have  remained  true  to  their  duty,  of 
all  the  shock  and  motor-cycle  battalions,  of  all  the  armored  divisions 
and  all  the  artillery,  Cossack  and  cavalry  sections  repulsed  the  ad- 
vance of  the  enemy  and  put  a  damper  upon  the  Satanic  joy  of  the 
German  Emperor,  Wilhelm.  Glory  to  you,  foremost  and  valiant  sons 
of  Great  Russia!  Glory  to  you,  fearless  and  manly  fighters  for  the 
Fatherland  and  freedom!  The  country  will  never  forget  your  self- 
sacrifices,  and  the  coming  happiness  and  greatness  of  the  Fatherland 
will  be  the  fruit  of  your  acts  and  your  heroism. 

Officers  and  the  few  soldiers  of  the  infantry  regiments  who 
have  remained  true  to  your  duty,  who  have  not  dishonored  yourselves 
by  shameful  flight  and  treachery,  I  am  addressing  myself  to  you. 
Your  deeds  are  immortal;  your  heroism  will  enrich  history  and  pos- 
terity. A  country  possessing  valiant  citizens  like  you  does  not  perish 
and  cannot  perish.  Deserted  by  your  seditious  and  treacherous  com- 
rades— soldiers  overpowered  by  mad  propaganda — you  alone  remained 
at  your  positions,  and  throwing  against  the  strong  numbers  of  the 
enemy  only  your  unlimited  valor  and  braver)-  j-ou  perished  in  the 
unequal  fight  of  one  against  several  dozens  of  the  advancing  enemy. 
You,  heroic  officers  and  loyal  soldiers,  have  paid  with  your  lives  for 
the  dishonor  of  your  own  Army,  but  your  blood  is  the  pledge  of  the 
regeneration  of  the  beloved  regiments  and  of  the  rebuilding  of  the 
fighting  might  of  our  Army. 

A  few  weeks  will  pass  and  the  revived,  free  Russian  Army,  hav- 
ing liberated  itself  from  the  madness  of  enticement  and  the  mire  of 
disintegration,  will  stand  up  with  formidable,  mighty  power  against 
the  enemy,  and  then  it  will  inscribe  your  names  in  sparkling  letters 
in  the  memory  of  the  coming  generations." 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of 
Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates,  on  July  22,  in 
night  session,  decided  to  confer  supreme  and  unlimited  power 
on  Kerensky's  Cabinet  and  adopted  the  following  resolution, 
which  was  passed  by  a  majority  of  252  votes  to  57 : 

"Recognizing  that  the  country  is  menaced  by  a  military  debacle 
on  the  front  and  by  anarchy  at  home,  it  is  resolved: 

First — That  the  country  and  the  Revolution  are  endangered 
Second — That  the  Provisional  Government  be  proclaimed  ttp^Tov- 
ernment  of  National  Safety. 


418  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Third — That  unlimited  powers  be  accorded  the  Government  for  re- 
establishing the  organization  and  discipline  of  the  Army  for  a  fight 
to  the  finish  against  the  enemies  of  public  order  and  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  whole  program  embodied  in  the  Government  program 
just  announced."* 

At  the  same  time  the  Executive  Committee  issued  the  fol- 
lowing appeal  to  the  Army : 

Fellow-soldiers:  One  of  our  armies  has  wavered,  its  regiments 
have  fled  before  the  enemy.  Part  of  our  front  has  been  broken. 
Emperor  Wilhelm's  hordes,  which  have  moved  forward,  are  bringing 
with  them  death  and  destruction. 

Who  is  responsible  for  this  humiliation?  The  responsibility 
rests  with  those  who  have  spread  discord  in  the  Army  and  shaken 
its  discipline,  with  those  who  at  a  time  of  danger  disobeyed  the 
military  commands  and  wasted  time  in  fruitless  discussions  and 
disputes. 

Many  of  those  who  left  the  line  and  sought  safety  in  running  away 
paid  with  their  lives  for  having  disobeyed  orders.  The  enemy's  fire 
mowed  them  down.  If  this  costly  lesson  has  taught  you  nothing, 
then  there  will  be  no  salvation  for  Russia. 

Enough  of  words!  The  time  has  come  to  act  without  hesitation. 
We  have  acknowledged  the  Provisional  Government.  With  the  Gov- 
ernment lies  the  salvation  of  the  Revolution.  We  have  acknowledged 
its  unlimited  authority  and  its  unlimited  power.  Its  commands  must 
be  law.  All  those  who  in  battle  disobey  the  commands  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government  will  be  regarded  as  traitors.  To  traitors  and 
cowards  no  mercy  will  be  shown. 

Fellow-soldiers:  You  want  a  durable  peace.  You  want  your  land, 
your  freedom.  Then  you  must  know  that  only  by  a  stubborn  struggle 
will  you  win  peace  for  Russia  and  all  nations.  If  you  yield  before 
the  troops  of  the  German  Emperor,  you  lose  both  your  land  and 
your  freedom.  The  conquering,  imperialistic  Germans  will  force  you 
again  and  again  to  fight  for  your  interests. 

Fellow-soldiers  at  the  front:  Let  there  be  no  traitors  or  cowards 
among  you.  Let  not  one  of  you  retreat  a  single  step  before  the  foe. 
Only  one  way  is  open  for  you — the  way  forward. 

Fellow-soldiers  in  the  rear:  Be  ready  to  advance  to  the  front 
for  the  support  of  your  brothers,  abandoned  and  betrayed,  fleeing 
from  their  positions.  Summon  all  your  strength  for  the  struggle 
for  a  durable  peace,  for  your  land  and  your  freedom.  Without 
wavering,  without  fear,  without  disastrous  discussions,  carry  out  all 
military  commands.     At  the  time  of  battle  disobedience  and  wavering 


*The  program  is  given  on    pp.  432-433. 


The  Great  Crisis — July,  1917  419 


are  worse  than  treachery.     Your  ruin,  the  ruin  of  Russia  lies  in  dis- 
obedience and  wavering. 

Fellow-soldiers:  You  are  being  watched  by  those  who  work  for 
Russia,  and  by  the  whole  world.  The  ruin  of  the  Russian  Revolution 
spells  ruin  for  all.  Summon  up  all  your  manhood,  your  perseverance 
and  sense  of  discipline  and  save  the  Fatherland." 

Confronted  with  the  symptoms  of  spreading  demoralization 
and  disintegration  in  the  Army,  the  Provisional  Government 
found  it  necessary  to  restore  capital  punishment,  abolished 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Revolution,  and  on  July  25  it  issued 
the  following  decree : 

"The  shameful  conduct  of  several  military  divisions  in  the  rear 
as  well  as  on  the  front,  who  have  forgotten  their  duty  towards  the 
Fatherland  and  who  have  placed  Russia  and  the  Revolution  on  the 
verge  of  ruin,  compels  the  Provisional  Government  to  adopt  extra- 
ordinary measures  in  order  to  restore  order  and  discipline  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Army. 

Fully  conscious  of  the  burden  of  responsibility  for  the  fate  of  the 
Fatherland,  the  Provisional  Government  finds  it  necessary: 

1.  To  restore  the  death  penalty  for  the  duration  of  the  war  for 
those  in  the  military  service,  for  most  serious  crimes. 

2.  To  establish  military-revolutionary  courts,  consisting  of  sol- 
diers and  officers,  for  the  immediate  trial  of  such  criminals." 

Unfortunately,  even  the  extraordinary  measures  resorted  to 
bv  the  Provisional  Government  could  not  stop  the  process  of 
disintegration  which,  in  a  few  months  after  the  July  crisis, 
with  the  Bolsheviki  coming  into  power,  resulted  in  the  com- 
plete annihilation  of  the  once  so  powerful  and  glorious  Rus- 
sian Army.  To  understand  this  process  it  is  necessary  to 
understand  not  only  and  not  so  much  the  faults  and  failures 
of  the  Provisional  Government,  as  the  criminal  policy  of  the 
old  regime  in  its  relation  to  the  Army. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  1914,  up  to  the  Revolution 
the  Tzar's  Government  mobilized  not  less  than  14-15  million 
men.  These  figures  are  approximate  because  even  the  Tzar's 
officials  did  not  possess  exact  data  as  to  how  many  men  were 
called  to  active  service  in  Russia.  Not  infrequently  we  find 
here  and  there,  coming  from  authoritative  sources,  that  during 
the  two  and  a  half  years  of  war  before  the  Revolution  the 
Tzar's  Government  mobilized  up  to  18  or  19  million  men. 

These  enormous  masses  of  people  were  thrown  almost  bare- 


420  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

handed  against  the  wonderfully  equipped  Teutonic  armies. 
It  is  enough  to  recall  the  tragedy  of  1915,  when  the  Russian 
Army  had  to  retreat  from  Galicia  and  give  up  Poland  because 
there  were  no  shells  for  the  Russian  guns.  But  this  is  not  all, 
— the  Russian  soldiers  were  not  even  given  enough  rifles. 
At  the  trial  of  General  Sukhomlinov,  the  Secretary  of  War 
under  the  old  regime,  who  has  been  sentenced,  for  high  treason, 
to  life  imprisonment  at  hard  labor,  General  Yanushkevitch, 
the  former  Chief  of  the  Russian  General  Staff,  stated :  "There 
were  times  during  our  retreat  from  Galicia,  in  the  summer 
of  1915,  when  the  Germans,  knowing  that  we  did  not  have  any 
shells,  would  put  their  guns  at  a  distance  of  only  2000  yards 
and  shoot  down  one  helpless  regiment  after  another.  We  had 
no  guns,  we  had  no  rifles.  In  the  very  beginning  of  the  war 
one  rifle,  on  the  average,  was  given  to  two  soldiers.  Then 
it  was  one  rifle  for  three  soldiers,  then  for  four,  and  finally  one 
rifle  only  was  given  for  every  ten  soldiers.  The  soldiers  in 
the  rear  had  to  wait  until  their  comrades  on  the  firing-line 
were  killed  so  that  they  might  have  their  rifles  and  take  their 
places." 

As  a  result  of  the  inefficiency  and  treachery  of  the  old  regime. 
Russia's  casualties  in  this  war  amounted  to  about  8.000.000. 
If  the  Russian  Army  had  been  properly  managed  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  the  war  might  possibly  have  been  over 
long  ago,  with  Russia  and  her  Allies  victorious,  with  Russian 
casualties  probably  not  more  than  one-third  of  what  they 
actually  have  been. 

The  greatest  factor  in  the  demoralization  and  disintegration 
of  the  Russian  Army  was  the  old  regime  with  its  centuries  of 
oppressing  and  humiliating  the  soul  of  the  peasant  soldier,  with 
its  unspeakable  crime  in  throwing  against  the  Teutonic  war- 
machinery  millions  of  Russia's  youth,  unarmed  and  insufficient- 
ly trained  for  the  great  art  of  modern  warfare.  If,  nevertheless, 
the  Russian  Army  has.  even  in  this  war,  accomplished  mira- 
cles, it  is  because  of  the  innate  traits  of  the  Russian  character. 
The  Tzar's  Government  brought  Russia  to  the  tragic  defeat 
of  1915.  while  the  character  of  the  Russian  soldier,  his  won- 
derful capacity  for  self-sacrifice  made  possible  for  the  Russian 


The  Great  Crisis — July,  1917  421 


Army  such  a  glorious  achievement  as  the  offensive  in  Galicia, 
in  the  summer  of   1916,  when   the   Russian  soldiers,   led   bv 
General  Brusilov,  attacked  the  enemy  continuously  for  three 
months  and  captured  500,000  Austrian  prisoners  and  498  gun-. 
Nevertheless,  on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution  the  spirit  of  the 
Russian  Army  was  already  undermined  by  the  criminal  pol- 
icy of  the  old  regime.    The  number  of  deserters,  by  that  time, 
amounted  to  hundreds  of  thousands.     The  Revolution,  in  its 
natural  endeavor  to  accord  the  dignity  of  citizenship  to  every 
one  righting  for  Russia's  and^the  world's  freedom,  went  to  the 
other  extreme,  which  led  to  the  final  disorganization   in  the 
Army.     On   May  27,  A.    F.  Kerensky,   as   Minister   of   War, 
signed    the    Declaration    of   Soldiers'    Rights,    which    together 
with  the  famous  Order  No.  1*  may  be  considered  as  the  most 
fatal  acts  of  the  Revolution.     These  decrees  were  probably 
psychologically  inevitable,  but  their  fatal  role  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Russian  Army  cannot  be  underestimated. 

The  Declaration  of  Soldiers'  Rights,  in  its  first  three  para- 
graphs, declares  that  the  soldiers  and  officers  shall  enjoy  all  the 
rights  of  free  citizens ;  they  may  belong  to  any  political  party  ; 
they  may  speak,  write  or  publish  anything  whatsoever  on  any 
political,  religious,  social  or  other  subject,  within  the  scope 
of  the  ordinary  laws. 

The  fourth  paragraph  granted  full  religious  freedom ;  the 
next  two  safeguarded  the  freedom  of  soldiers'  correspondence 
and  the  right  to  receive  any  printed  matter.  Furthermore, 
the  soldiers  were  given  the  right  to  discard  the  uniform  except 
when  in  actual  sen-ice ;  the  compulsory  salute  to  superiors 
was  abolished.  The  soldiers  were  given  the  right  to  leave 
the  barracks  or  ships,  outside  of  duty  hours,  on  the  mere 
announcement  of  such  intention  to  their  superiors.  All  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  the  internal  economic  conditions  of  the  regi- 
ment or  ship  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  elective  committees 
consisting  one-fifth  part  of  the  representatives  of  the  officers 
and  the  rest  of  the  representatives  of  the  soldiers. 


•Order  No.  l  was  issued  by  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates.  It  called  upon  the  soldiers  not  to  execute  the  orders 
of   their   officers   unless    those   orders   were   approved   bv   the   revolutionary' 

authorities. 


422  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

It  is  true  that  the  Declaration  repeated  the  word  discipline 
almost  in  every  paragraph.  It  said,  for  instance,  that  although 
the  soldiers  shall  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  free  citizens,  they 
must  regulate  their  conduct  "by  the  requirements  of  service" 
and  discipline."  In  paragraph  fourteen,  where  the  Declaration 
stated  that  from  now  on  no  one  in  the  Army  might  be  sub- 
jected to  punishment  without  trial,  it  stated  also  that  during 
an  actual  military  operation  the  superior  has  the  right,  on  his 
own  responsibility,  to  take  all  measures,  even  to  the  use  of 
armed  force  against  those  who  do  not  obey  his  orders.  Never- 
theless, the  Declaration,  under  the  conditions  Under  which  it 
was  issued,  could  not  create  any  impression  on  the  peasant 
soldier's  mind  other  than  that  it  did  create.  The  authority  of 
the  officer  was  broken  down,  and  after  generations  of  oppres- 
sion and  severe  discipline  the  Army  swung  to  the  opposite 
extreme.  "The  freest  Army  in  the  world,"  as  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  called  the  Russian 
Army  during  those  days,  soon  became  the  most  demoralized 
Army  in  the  world,  and  after  a  few  months  of  various  experi- 
ments ceased  to  exist  as  an  Army. 

We  have  said  before  that  all  this  process  was  probably 
inevitable  under  the  circumstances  created  by  the  Revolution. 
The  March  Revolution  in  itself  was  such  a  miracle  that  every- 
one in  Russia  began  to  believe  that  other  miracles  would 
follow.  In  addition,  it  must  be  considered  that  a  revolutionary 
government  which  is  not  extremely  liberal  in  its  policy  is  im- 
mediately suspected  of  tyranny  by  the  people  inexperienced  in 
freedom.  This  explains  why  Prof.  Miliukov  demanded  from 
Great  Britain  that  Leon  Trotsky,  who  had  been  detained 
by  the  British  authorities  in  Halifax,  should  be  allowed  to 
return  to  Russia.  This  explains  why  not  only  Kerensky's 
but  even  Guchkov's  measures,  although  destructive  to 
the  Army,  were  nevertheless  politically  inevitable.  From 
point  of  view  of  strict  discipline,  the  first  blow  to  the  Army 
was  the  first  Convention  of  the  Delegates  from  the  Front, 
which  A.  I.  Guchkov,  under  the  circumstances,  had  to  address 
as  Minister  of  War.  An  Army  brought  into  the  whirl- 
wind of  political  discussion,   an   Army   where  even   strategic 


The  Great  Crisis— July,  79/7  423 

problems  are  discussed  and  decided  at  soldiers'  meetings  is 
no  longer  an  Army. 

No  one,  individually,  may  be  blamed  for  the  disorganization 
of  the  Russian  Army, — everybody  contributed  to  this  unfor- 
tunate, although,  under  the  circumstances,  inevitable  process. 
The  short-sightedness  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy,  in 
that  respect,  was  probably  best  displayed  in  the  following 
pronouncement  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  issued  on  May  28  and  referring  to  the 
just  then  published  Declaration  of  Soldiers'  Rights  : 

"Comrades,  Soldiers:  Two  months  we  have  been  waiting  for  the 
day  when  the  rights  which  we  gained  through  the  Revolution  would 
receive  the  force  of  law,  obligatory  on  all  serving  in  the  Army. 

Having  joined  the  ranks  of  revolutionary  fighters,  we  have  freed 
ourselves  from  the  oppression  of  Tzarism. 

The  Revolution  made  all  equal;  the  soldier  is  now  a  citizen  by  law. 

Except  when  on  duty,  the  difference  between  soldiers  and  officers 
has  been  abolished. 

Paragraph  12  of  the  Declaration  of  Soldiers'  Rights  abolishes  the 
old  system  of  saluting. 

From  now  on  the  soldier-citizen  is  free  from  the  slavery  of  saluting 
and  as  an  equal,  free  person  will  greet  whomsoever  he  chooses. 

Long  live  the  free-thinking  soldier-citizen! 

Long  live  the  united,  strong,  free  Army  of  the  people! 

Discipline  in  the  Revolutionary  Army  will  exist,  prompted  by 
popular  enthusiasm  and  the  sense  of  duty  toward  the  free  country 
rather  than  by  a  slavish  salute. 

We  soldiers  shall  be  able  to  prove  that  the  free  Army  of  citizen- 
soldiers  is  much  stronger  than  the  Army  of  the  old  regime." 


T 


HE  grave  crisis  in  the  Army  was  accompanied  by  a 
crisis  in  the  interior  of  Russia,  bringing  to  the  fore  two 
factors  which,  a  few  months  later,  brought  Russia  to 
her  temporary  ruin.  These  factors  were  the  Bolsheviki  and 
the  Ukrainian  problem. 

Both  of  these  problems  made  their  appearance  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Revolution.  While  the  only  way  for  Russia's 
salvation  lay  in  the  union  of  all  the  progressive  forces  with 
the  Provisional  Government  in  its  endeavors  to  bring  the 
country  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  which  alone  could  solve 
the   constitutional   and   social   problems   confronting   the   new 


424  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

Democracy,  the  Bolsheviki  incited  the  masses  with  their 
demagogy  and  made  steady  endeavors  to  overthrow  the  Pro- 
visional Government.  At  the  same  time  certain  elements  of 
the  Ukrainian  "'intelligentsia,"  probably  not  without  the  in- 
fluence of  Austria,  made  steady  attempts  to  solve,  before  the 
convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  problem  of  the 
relation  of  the  Ukraine  to  the  Russian  State.  On  June  16  the 
Provisional  Government  found  it  necessary  to  address  to  the 
Ukrainian  people  the  following  appeal,  signed  by  Prince  G.  E. 
Lvov  : 

"To  the  Ukrainian  People:  In  these  days  of  momentous  ex- 
periences the  Russian  Provisional  Government  calls  upon  you  in 
behalf  of  Free  Russia.  These  are  grave  experiences  that  Russia 
is  passing  through  in  order  to  strengthen  the  freedom  that  will  give 
prosperity  to  the  people  and  will  restore  to  all  nationalities  their 
rights. 

If  Russia  is  devastated  by  the  internal  enemy,  if  the  foes  of 
liberty  triumph,  lost  will  be  the  common  cause  of  all  the  peoples 
inhabiting  Russia. 

To  lead  the  country  through  all  dangers,  to  bring  together  the 
Constituent  Assembly  of  all  the  peoples,  where  they  shall  manifest 
their  will  firmly  and  openly  by  universal  and  equal  suffrage — this  is 
the  problem  before  the  Government,  the  provisional  guardian  of  the 
revolutionary  authority. 

This  is  also  your  problem,  citizens  of  the  Ukraine.  Are  you  not  a 
part  of  Free  Russia?  Is  not  the  fate  of  the  Ukraine  tied  up  indis- 
solubly  with  the  destiny  of  the  whole  of  liberated  Russia? 

Who  can  doubt  but  that  Russia,  standing  under  the  banner  of 
complete  self-government  of  the  people,  will  secure  the  rights  of  all 
the  nationalities  within  her  borders!  Through  their  representatives 
to  the  Constituent  Assembly  the  peoples  will  be  able  to  devise  for 
themselves  those  forms  of  government  and  economic  organization 
which   are   in   complete  accord  with   their  national   aspirations. 

The  Provisional  Government  has  already  commenced  the  reali- 
zation of  the  rights  to  cultural  self-determination  of  all  the  peoples 
of  Russia,  and  imbued  with  sympathy  and  with  a  feeling  of  duty 
towards  the  Ukrainian  people,  it  is  endeavoring  to  obliterate  all  signs 
of  the  abuse  to  which  the  people  have  been  subjected. 

The  Provisional  Government  has  considered  and  holds  it  as  its 
duty  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  social-democratic  organi- 
zations of  the  Ukraine  regarding  those  transitory  measures  which  in 
the  run  of  affairs  could  and  should  be  adopted,  to  secure  the  rights  of 
the  Ukrainian  people  in  the  management  of  local  affairs  and  autonomy 
in  the   schools   and   courts — measures   that  will   provide  for  transition 


The  Great  Crisis — July.  1917  425 

to  the  state  of  liberty  which  the  Ukraine  must  receive  from  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly. 

However,  a  complete  reconstruction  of  the  governmental  or- 
ganism of  Russia  and  the  establishment  of  a  general  Russian  Army 
is  impossible  under  the  pressure  of  the  internal  enemies  and  under  the 
gravest  danger  to   the  cause  of  liberty  from  without. 

Brothers!  Ukrainians!  Do  not  start  out  on  the  road  which  leads  to  a 
split  in  the  forces  of  liberated  Russia!  Do  not  alienate  yourselves  from 
the  common  country;  do  not  dismember  the  general  Army;  do  not  in- 
troduce fratricidal  strife  into  the  people's  ranks  just  at  a  moment  when 
the  efforts  of  all  the  united  forces  are  needed  for  the  protection  of 
the  country  against  military  destruction  and  for  the  overcoming  of  the 
interior  obstacles.  In  your  anxiety  to  immediately  fix  securely  the 
forms  of  governmental  organization  for  the  Ukraine,  do  not  strike 
a  deadly  blow  at  the  entire  Government  and  at  yourselves  as  well. 
for  the  ruin  of  Russia  also  spells  the  ruin  of  your  cause. 

Let  all  the  peoples  of  Russia  close  their  ranks  tighter  in  the 
struggle  against  the  dangers  which  threaten  the  country  from  with- 
out and  from  within.  And  let  them  submit  the  fundamental  problems 
for  a  final  solution  to  the  not  far-off  Constituent  Assembly,  where 
they  themselves  will  decree  the  destinies  of  Russia  as  well  as  of  her 
individual  provinces." 

The  growth  of  the  Ukrainian  movement  necessitated  send- 
ing to  the  Ukraine  two  members  of  the  Cabinet,  the  Minister 
of  Post  and  Telegraph,  Tseretelli,  and  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  Terestchenko.  whose  concessions  to  the  Ukraine,  in 
behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government,  created  opposition  in 
the  Cabinet  and  resulted  in  the  resignation  of  the  five  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet  belonging  to  the  Constitutional-Demo- 
cratic Party.  These  resignations  occurred  on  July  15.  On 
Jul}-  20  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov  resigned  and  A.  F.  Kerensky  was 
appointed  Prime  Minister.  Before  the  resignation  of  Prince 
Lvov,  on  July  16,  the  Provisional  Government  adopted  the 
following  resolution  regarding  the  Ukrainian  problem  : 

"After  having  listened  to  the  information  given  by  Ministers 
Kerensky.  Terestchenko  and  Tseretelli  on  the  Ukrainian  question, 
the  Provisional   Government  has  come  to  the  following  decision: 

To  appoint  a  supreme  body  for  the  management  of  affairs  in 
the  Ukraine,  a  separate  organ — a  General  Secretariate — the  forma- 
tion of  which  will  be  determined  by  the  Government  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Central  Ukrainian  Rada.  supplemented,  in  all  justice, 
by   representatives   of  the   other  nationalities   inhabiting  the   Ukraine. 


426  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


through  their  democratic  organizations.     All  measures  concerning  the 
affairs  of  the  Ukraine  will  be  realized  through  the  above  organ. 

Considering  that  the  question  regarding  the  national-political 
construction  of  the  Ukraine  and  the  method  of  solving  the  agrarian 
problem  there,  within  the  limits  of  the  general  laws,  should  be  dis- 
posed of  by  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  Provisional  Government 
will  be  deeply  interested  in  the  working  out  of  the  project  of  the 
national-political  statutes  of  the  Ukraine.  This  project  is  to  be 
worked  out  by  the  Central  Rada  of  the  Ukraine,  supplemented  as 
aforesaid  in  a  sense  which  the  Rada  itself  will  find  to  be  in  conformity 
with  the  interests  of  the  Province,  for  submission  to  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  where  the  forms  for  the  solution  of  the  land  question  shall 
also  be  submitted. 

The   Provisional   Government  deems   it  necessary  to   preserve  the 
fighting  capacity  of  the  united  Army;   it   considers  inadmissible  any 
measures  likely  to  break  up  the  unity  of  the  Army's  organization  and 
command,  as,  for  instance,  the  changing  at  this  time  of  the  plan  of 
mobilization  by  swinging  over  to  a   system  of  territorial   formation 
of  the  military  detachments,  or  of  vesting  commanding  authority  in 
any  social  organization.     In  addition,  the  Government  thinks  it  pos- 
sible to  continue  to  assist  in  the  matter  of  bringing  the  Ukrainians 
to  a  firmer  national  unification  in  the  very  ranks  of  the  Army,  or  to 
the  formation   of  distinctive   detachments   of   Ukrainians   exclusively, 
in  so  far  as  such  a  measure  will,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Minister  of 
War,  be  considered  technically  possible  and  will  not  affect  the  fighting 
efficiency   of  the   Army.     At   present,   aiming   at   a   more    systematic 
and  more  successful  achievement  of  this  object,  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment   thinks   it   possible    to    invite    the   Ukrainian    soldiers    them- 
selves to  aid  in  the  realization  of  the  object.     To  this  end  there  may, 
with  the  approval  of  the  Central  Rada,  be  delegated  special  Ukrainian 
representatives  who  will  be  attached  to  the  offices  of  the  Minister  of 
War  and  of  the  Chief  Commander  at  General  Headquarters.     As  for 
the    local    military    committees    of    the    Ukrainians,    they    accomplish 
their  functions  on  general  principles;  however,  their  activity  must  be 
in  accordance  with  the  activity  of  the  other  military  social  organiza- 
tions." 


THE  Bolshevist  problem,  as  a  problem  threatening  the 
very  existence  of  the  Russian  Democracy,  made  its 
appearance  on  July  17,  1917,  when  the  Petrograd  Bol- 
sheviki  made  their  first  attempt  to  seize  governmental  power. 
The  undemocratic,  tyrannical  character  of  the  -  Bolshevist 
movement  was  best  illustrated  in  those  days  when  they  made 
an  attempt  to  become  the  Government  of  Russia  in  spite  of 


The  Great  Crisis— July,  1917  427 

the  fact  that  against  them  were  arrayed  not  only  the  middle 
class,  but  also  the  entire  Russian  Revolutionary  Democracy. 
On  June  22  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates  issued  the  following  appeal  with  regard 
to  the  Bolshevist  agitation : 

"Comrades,    Soldiers    and    Workmen!      The     Bolsheviki    Party    is 
calling  upon  you  to  go  out  into  the  street. 

This  appeal  is  made  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  the  All-Russian  Congress,  or 
all  of  the  Socialist  Parties.  It  is  sounded  just  at  that  moment  of 
supreme  danger  when  the  All-Russian  Congress  has  called  upon  our 
comrades,  the  workers  of  the  District  of  Vyborg,  to  remember  that 
demonstrations  in  these  days  may  hurt  the  cause  of  the  Revolution. 
Comrades,  in  the  name  of  millions  of  workers,  peasants,  and 
soldiers,  in  the  rear  and  at  the  front,  we  tell  you:  'Do  not  do  that 
which  you  are  called  upon  to  do.' 

At  this  dangerous  moment  you  are  called  out  into  the  streets  to 

demand  the  overthrow  of  the  Provisional  Government,  to  whom  the 

All-Russian  Congress  has  just  found  it  necessary  to  give  its  support. 

And  those  who  are  calling  you  cannot  but  know  that  out  of  your 

peaceful  demonstration  chaos  and  bloodshed  may  result. 

Knowing  your  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution,  we 
tell  you:  'You  are  being  called  to  a  demonstration  in  favor  of 
the  Revolution,  but  we  know  that  counter-revolutionists  want  to  take 
advantage  of  your  demonstration.  We  know  that  the  counter- 
revolutionists  are  eagerly  awaiting  the  moment  when  strife  will 
develop  in  the  ranks  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  and  will  enable 
them  to  crush  the  Revolution. 

Comrades!  In  the  name  of  all  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  in  the  name  of  the  Council  of  Peasants'  Dele- 
gates, in  the  name  of  the  acting  Army  and  the  Socialist  Parties,  we 
tell  you:  'Not  a  single  division,  not  a  regiment,  not  a  group  of  workers 
must  go  out  into  the  street  to-morrow.  Not  a  single  demonstration 
should  be  held  to-day.' 

There  is  a  hard  struggle  ahead  of  us. 

When    Russia's    liberty     will    really     be    threatened    by    counter- 
revolutionary   dangers,   we    shall   call   you.      The    outbreaks    of    those 
bent  upon  disorganizing  our  forces,  spell  ruin  to  the  Revolution. 
Conserve  your  forces. 

Preserve  the  basis  of  friendship  and  solidarity  with  the  rest  of 
Russia." 

In  spite  of  all  the  endeavors  of  the  responsible  revolutionary 
leaders,  the  Bolsheviki  started  their  revolt  on  July  17.  and  in 
two  days  about  five  hundred  men,  women  and  children  were 


428  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

killed  in  the  streets  of  Petrograd.  The  United  Executive 
Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Sol- 
diers' and  Peasants'  Delegates  immediately  issued,  at  the  very 
outset  of  the  revolt,  the  following  appeal : 

"Comrades,  Workers  and  Soldiers!  Yesterday  several  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  belonging  to  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party, 
resigned  from  the  staff  of  the  Provisional  Government.  In  view  of 
the  crisis  which  this  has  created,  a  joint  session  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  and  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Peasants'  Delegates,  as  the  authorized  organs  of 
the  Revolutionary  Democracy  of  entire  Russia,  was  called  to  consider 
a  way  out  of  the  difficult  situation. 

But  the  work  of  this  session  was  interrupted.  In  spite  of  the 
repeated  warnings  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peas- 
ants' Delegates,  several  detachments  of  soldiers  marched  out  armed 
and  tried  to  capture  the  town,  seizing  automobiles,  arbitrarily  arresting 
private  individuals,  and  acting  with  threats  and  violence. 

On  coming  to  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  they  demanded,  with  arms  in 
their  hands,  that  the  Executive  Committees  take  over  all  power. 
While  offering  this  power  to  the  Councils  they  were  the  first  to 
encroach  upon  this  power.  The  All-Russian  Executive  organs — the 
Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates — reject 
with  indignation  every  attempt  to  bring  pressure  on  its  will. 

It  is  wrong  to  attempt  by  armed  demonstration  to  impose  the 
will  of  several  detachments  of  the  garrison  of  one  city  upon  the 
whole  Russian  people.  Upon  the  shoulders  of  all  who  dared  to  call 
out  armed  people  with  this  aim  lies  the  blood  which  was  shed  on  the 
streets  of  Petrograd. 

Towards  our  Revolutionary  Army,  which,  on  the  front,  is  de- 
fending the  conquests  of  the  Revolution,  these  deeds  are  nothing 
short  of  treason.  Anyone  in  the  rear  who  encroaches  upon  the  will 
of  the  authorized  organs  of  the  Democracy  and  thus  incites  in  its 
ranks  civil  strife  stabs  in  the  back  the  revolutionary  Army  fighting 
against  the  troops  of  Wilhelm. 

The  All-Russian  Executive  Committee  of  the  Councils  of  Work- 
men's, Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  protests  against  these  ominous 
symptoms  of  disintegration  which  seek  to  undermine  every  popular 
authority,  not  excluding  the  authority  of  the  future  Constituent 
Assembly. 

The  All-Russian  Executive  Committees  of  the  Councils  of  Work- 
men's, Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  demand  once  and  for  all 
the  cessation  of  similar  demonstrations  disgracing  revolutionary 
Petrograd. 

All    those   who    stand   for   the   defense   of  the    Revolution   and    its 


The  Great  Crisis— J u  ly,  1917  1,29 

conquests  are  called  upon  by  the  Executive  Committees  of  the  All- 
Russian  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates 
to  await  the  decision  of  the  authorized  organs  of  the  Democracy.  To 
this  decision,  in  which  the  voices  of  all  Revolutionary  Russia  will  be 
reflected,  must  submit  all  those  to  whom  the  cause  of  freedom  is  dear." 

The  Bolshevist  uprising-  ended  on  July  19.  Several  Cossack 
detachments,  true  to  the  Provisional  Government,  were  able 
to  disperse  the  Bolshevist  mobs.  On  July  21  the  United 
Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of  Work- 
men's. Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  issued  a  new  appeal : 

"The  acute  danger  to  which  the  Revolution  was  subjected  by  the 
anarchistic  demonstrations  of  individual  groups  of  soldiers  and  work- 
men during  the  16th  and  17th  of  July  is  over.  At  the  present  time  life 
is  beginning  to  follow  its  normal  course.  The  mad  attempt  has 
evoked  among  the  masses  a  strong  reaction  and  the  danger  lies  now 
in  those  passions,  in  panic  and  in  the  animosity  which  threaten  to 
assume  the  form  of  an  outburst  of  a  counter-revolutionary  nature. 

At  the  present  time  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  all  the  Peas- 
ants' Councils,  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates, 
as  well  as  the  committees  of  the  troops'  divisions  on  the  front  and 
the  garrisons  present  a  united  front  in  the  struggle  against  the 
various  attempts  to  make  use  of  the  Petrograd  events  in  order  to  sow 
discontent  among  the  masses. 

Calling  the  entire  Revolutionary  Democracy  to  unite  closely 
behind  the  fully  authorized  organs,  we  beg  you  to  report  all  the 
arbitrary,  wilful  demonstrations,  any  counter-revolutionary  outbursts 
and  attempts  at  pogroms,  to  inform  whenever  possible  and  in  detail 
about  the  situation.  Always  be  ready  at  the  necessary  moment  to  sup- 
port the  Central  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of  Work- 
men's, Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  with  all  the  weight  of  the 
moral  authority  of  closely  united  and  organized  institutions  of  the 
revolutionary  Army.  Our  principle  is — close  adherence  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary Democracy  to  its  political  centers,  the  Councils  oi  Work- 
men's, Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates." 

In  complete  accord  with  the  attitude  of  the  Russian  Democ- 
racy. A.  F.  Kerensky,  as  Minister  of  War  and  Navy,  on  July 
20  addressed  the  following  appeal  to  the  Army  and  Navy  : 

"From  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  both  in  Krorrstadt  and 
on  several  vessels  of  the  Baltic  Fleet,  under  the  influence  of 
German  agents  and  provocators,  there  appeared  some  people  calling 
for  action  threatening  the  Revolution  and  the  safety  of  the  Father- 
land. At  the  time  when  our  valiant  Army,  heroically  sacrificing 
itself,  entered  upon  a  bloody  fight  with  the  enemy;  at  the  time 
when,     true     to    Democracy,    our    fleet    was    unremittingly     carrying 


430  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


out  the  hard  military  task  that  rested  upon  it,  Kronstadt  and  several 
vessels,  led  by  the  'Republica'  and  'Petropavlosck,'  in  their  action  were 
dealing  blows  to  their  own  comrades  by  passing  resolutions  against 
attack,  inciting  to  disobedience  to  the  revolutionary  authorities  in  the 
form  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  endeavoring  to  bring  press- 
ure upon  the  will  of  the  elected  bodies  of  the  Democracy,  represented 
by  the  All-Russian  Congress  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants' 
Delegates. 

During  the  very  advance  of  our  Army  disorder  began  in  Petrograd, 
which  threatened  the  Revolution  and  which  has  subjected  our  Army 
to  the  blows  of  the  enemy.  When,  on  the  demand  of  the  Provisional 
Government,  acting  in  accord  with  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates,  the 
ships  of  the  fleet  were  called  out  in  order  to  influence  quickly  and 
decisively  those  men  from  Kronstadt  participating  in  these;  treacher- 
ous derangements,  the  enemies  of  the  people  and  the  Revolution,  act- 
ing through  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Baltic  Fleet,  through  false 
interpretations  of  these  measures  stirred  up  mutiny  among  the  ships' 
crews.  These  traitors  have  prevented  the  despatching  to  Petrograd 
of  ships  true  to  the  Revolution  and  the  taking  of  measures  for  the 
speediest  stoppage  of  the  disorders  organized  by  the  enemy.  They 
have,  moreover,  incited  the  crews  to  unauthorized  acts — to  the  re- 
moval of  the  General  Commissary  Onipko,  the  order  for  the  arrest 
of  the  Assistant  Minister  of  the  Navy,  Captain  of  the  First  Rank, 
Duderov,  and  to  the  presentation  of  a  series  of  demands  to  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Delegates. 

The  seditious  and  treacherous  activities  of  a  number  of  people 
have  forced  the  Provisional  Government  to  issue  an  order  for  the 
immediate  arrest  of  their  leaders.  Included  in  this  order  is  the 
arrest  of  the  delegation,  recently  arrived  in  Petrograd,  from  the 
Baltic  Fleet,  upon  which  the  Provisional  Government  decided  in  order 
to  start  a  thorough  investigation. 

In  view  of  the  above  stated,  I  order: 

1.  The  Central  Committee  of  the  Baltic  Fleet  to  be  immediately 
disbanded,  a  new  one  to  be  elected  in  its  place. 

2.  To  declare  to  all  crews  and  vessels  of  the  Baltic  Fleet  that  I  call 
upon  them  to  immediately  remove  from  their  midst  suspicious  per- 
sons who  are  inciting  to  disobedience  to  the  Provisional  Government, 
and  agitating  against  an  advance,  and  to  bring  them  for  investigation 
and  trial  to  Petrograd. 

3.  To  the  crews  of  Kronstadt  and  the  ships  of  the  line,  'Petro- 
pavlosck,' 'Republica,'  and  'Slava,'  whose  honor  is  stained  by  counter- 
revolutionary acts  and  resolutions:  I  order  the  arrest  within  24 
hours  of  all  the  ring-leaders  and  that  they  be  sent  for  investigation 


The  Great  Crisis— July,  1917  431 


and  trial  to  Petrograd,  and  be  ordered  to  give  assurance  of  full 
obedience  to  the  Provisional  Government.  I  declare  to  the  crews  of 
Kronstadt  and  the  above-mentioned  ships  that  in  case  of  failure  to 
comply  with  my  present  order  they  will  be  declared  traitors  to  the 
country  and  the  Revolution  and  that  the  most  resolute  measures  will 
be  taken  against  them. 

Comrades:  The  Fatherland  is  on  the  brink  of  ruin  on  account  of 
sedition  and  treachery.  Death  is  threatening  its  freedom  and  the 
conquests  of  the  Revolution.  The  German  armies  have  already  begun 
the  advance  on  our  front.  Every  hour  we  may  expect  aggressive 
action  from  the  enemy's  fleet,  which  may  take  advantage  of  the  tem- 
porary disorganization.  Decisive  measures  are  necessary  in  order  to 
nip  it  in  the  bud.  The  Army  has  adopted  such  measures.  The  Fleet 
must  cooperate  with  the  Army.  In  the  name  of  the  Fatherland,  the 
Revolution  and  freedom,  in  the  name  of  the  welfare  of  the  toiling 
masses,  I  call  upon  you  to  rally  around  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  the  All-Russian  organs  of  Democracy,  and  with  your  breasts 
to  repulse  the  heavy  blows  of  the  foreign  foe,  protecting  the  rear  from 
the  seditious  blows  of  traitors." 

On  July  25  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian 
Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates 
adopted,  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of  300  to  11,  a  reso- 
lution demanding  that  the  Bolsheviki  immediately  explain 
the  accusation  brought  against  them  of  being  in  contact 
with  Germany,  and  that  the  Bolsheviki  leaders,  Lenine  and 
Zinoviev,  who  had  escaped  arrest  and  were  in  hiding, 
appear  for  public  trial.  The  resolution  contained  the  follow- 
ing recommendations : 

"First — The  whole  Revolutionary  Democracy  desires  that  the 
group  of  Bolsheviki  accused  of  having  organized  disorders  or  incited 
revolt  or  of  having  received  money  from  German  sources  be  tried 
publicly.  In  consequence,  the  Executive  Committee  considers  it 
absolutely  inadmissible  that  Lenine  and  Zinoviev  should  escape 
justice,  and  demands  that  the  Bolsheviki  Faction  immediately  and 
categorically  express  its  censure  of  the  conduct  of  its  leaders. 

Second — In  view  of  the  exceptional  situation,  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Delegates  demands  from  all  members  and  from  all  factions, 
as  well  as  from  all  members  of  local  Councils,  the  putting  into  abso- 
lute practice  of  all  decisions  adopted  by  the  majority  of  the  central 
organizations." 


As  we  have  said  above,  the  great  crisis  of  July,  1917  resulted 
in  the  resignation  of  Prince  Lvov  and  in  the  appointment  of 


432  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

A.  F.  Kerensky  to  his  place.     The  new  Cabinet,  on  July  22. 
issued  the  following  declaration  : 

"Citizens:  The  evil  hour  has  struck.  The  troops  of  the  German 
Emperor  have  broken  through  the  front  of  the  Russian  people's  revolu- 
tionary Army.  This  horrible  task  has  been  made  easier  for  them  by  the 
criminal  light-mindedness  and  blind  fanaticism  of  some,  by  the  dis- 
loyalty and  betrayal  of  others.  The  former  as  well  as  the  latter  have 
been  threatening  the  very  foundations  of  newly  freed  Russia  with 
ruin  and  disintegration.  At  this  threatening  moment,  when  the  coun- 
ter-revolutionary forces  that  have  been  in  hiding  take  advantage  of 
the  general  turmoil  to  come  out.  the  reorganized  Provisional  Govern- 
ment full}'  realizes  the  responsibility,  the  whole  burden  of  which 
falls  upon  its  shoulders.  But  the  Government  has  firm  faith  in  the 
might  of  the  great  Russian  people;  the  Provisional  Government 
believes  in  the  rapid  recovery  of  the  political  life  of  the  country  after 
the  contagious  disease  undermining  the  people's  organism  has  come 
to  the  surface  and  ended  in  an  acute  crisis;  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment believes  that  this  crisis  will  lead  to  recovery  and  not  to  death. 

Strong  in  its  faith,  the  Provisional  Government  is  ready  to  act 
and  will  act  with  all  the  energy  and  determination  that  the  extra- 
ordinary times  require.  The  Provisional  Government  regards  as  its 
first  and  basic  task  the  concentration  of  all  the  forces  for  the  struggle 
with  the  external  enemy  and  for  guarding  the  new  governmental 
order  from  the  various  anarchistic  and  counter-revolutionary  attempts, 
not  stopping  before  the  most  resolute  measures.  In  its  foreign 
policies  the  Provisional  Government  will  also  again  and  again  prove 
that  the  revolutionary  Army  can  fight,  firmly  convinced  that  not  a 
single  drop  of  blood  of  a  Russian  soldier  will  be  shed  for  purposes 
foreign  to  the  Russian  Democracy  that  has  openly  declared  its  peace 
formulas   before   the   whole   world. 

For  this  purpose  the  Provisional  Government,  in  view  of  the 
principles  of  foreign  policy  announced  in  the  Government's  declara- 
tion of  the  19th  of  May,  intends  to  invite  the  Allies  to  assemble  at  an 
Allied  conference  during  the  month  of  August,  in  order  to  determ'ne 
the  general  tendency  of  the  Allies'  foreign  policy  and  to  harmonize 
their  action  with  the  principles  announced  by  the  Russian  Revolution. 

Continuing  the  work  of  governmental  organization  in  other 
spheres  also,  on  the  basis  laid  down  in  the  declaration  of  May  19th, 
the  Provisional  Government  thinks  it  necessary  to  carry  through 
measures  that  will  help  realize   the  principles  referred  to  above. 

The  Provisional  Government  will  adopt  all  measures  necessary 
to  insure  that  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  take  place 
at  the  appointed  time,  September  30th,  and  that  all  the  preliminary 
arrangements  are  completed  in  advance,  in  order  to  secure  regular 
and  honest  elections-. 


The  Great  Crisis — July,  1917  43; 


The  speediest  inauguration  of  cities'  and  Zemstvos'  autonomy  on 
the  basis  of  general,  direct,  equal  and  secret  franchise  and  its  gen- 
eral promulgation  is  the  paramount  task  of  the  Government,  in  the 
sphere  of  interior  policies.  Attaching  special  importance  to  the  crea- 
tion of  organs  of  local  self-government  that  will  have  the  confidence 
of  the  whole  population,  the  Provisional  Government  will  now  call 
upon  the  representatives  of  public  organizations  to  form  collegiate 
bodies  of  provincial  administration  uniting  a   series   of  governments. 

Striving  to  carry  out  consistently  the  principles  of  civic  equality, 
the  Provisional  Government  will  issue  a  decree  ordering  the  aboli- 
tion of  all  castes  and  the  elimination  of  all  civil  titles,  as  well  as  all 
legions  of  honor,  with  the  exception  of  those  given  for  military 
distinction. 

For  a  decisive  struggle  against  economic  ruin  and  for  the  further 
promotion  of  measures  for  the  protection  of  labor,  the  Economic 
Council  formed  by  the  Provisional  Government  and  the  Main  Eco- 
nomic Committee  will  be  immediately  set  to  work:  their  task  i-  to 
formulate  a  general  plan  of  organization  of  the  nation's  economic  life 
and  labor,  the  working  out  of  bills  and  general  measures  for  the  regu- 
lation of  the  economic  life,  for  the  control  of  industry,  and  also  for  the 
practical  execution  of  these  plans. 

In  the  sphere  of  labor  policies,  bills  concerning  the  freedom  of 
coalition,  labor  markets  and  reconciliation  chambers  have  been  drafted 
and  in  the  next  few  days  will  be  passed.  Bills  regarding  an  eight- 
hour  day,  the  safeguarding  of  labor  and  the  inauguration  of  all 
kinds  of  socialistic  insurance  in  all  the  branches  of  hired  labor  are 
being  prepared. 

The  measures  that  the  Provisional  Government  will  adopt  in 
regard  to  the  agrarian  question  are,  as  formerly,  determined  by  their 
conviction  that  in  accordance  with  the  basic  needs  of  our  national 
economy,  with  the  repeatedly  expressed  desires  of  the  peasantry  and 
with  the  programs  announced  by  all  the  democratic  parties,  the  agra- 
rian reform  must  be  based  on  the  idea  of  transferring  the  land  into 
the  hands  of  the  toilers.  On  this  very  basis  is  the  project  for  agrarian 
reform  being  prepared  for  the  consideration  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly. 

Having  announced  its  plans  and  the  tasks  before  it,  the  Pro- 
visional Government  presumes  that  it  has  the  right,  in  its  difficult  and 
responsible  work,  to  count  upon  the  unlimited  and  enthusiastic  sup- 
port of  all  the  living  forces  of  the  country.  It  demands  from  all 
the  people  their  constant  readiness  to  sacrifice  all  their  property, 
their  very  life  for  the  salvafon  of  the  country  that  is  no  longer  a 
stepmother  for  the  peoples  that  inhabit  her,  that  is  striving 
unite  them  on  the  principles  of  freedom  and  equality." 


THE   THEATRICAL    SQUARE   IN    MOSCOW 

Showing  the  Grand  Theater,  where  the  National 
Conference  was  held. 

CHAPTER  XIV 
The  National  Conference  in  Moscow 

IN  spite  of  the  measures  taken  by  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, the  disintegration  in  the  Army  continued.  The 
internal  crisis  continued  also,  and  on  August  3  there  was 
a  new  ministerial  crisis  created  by  the  resignation  of  V.  M. 
Chernov,  the  Minister  of  Agriculture.  The  composition  of 
the  new  Cabinet  was  announced  on  August  7.  V.  M.  Chernov 
returned  to  his  post  in  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture.  The  Con- 
stitutional-Democratic Party,  whose  members  had  resigned 
from  the  Cabinet  in  connection  with  the  Ukranian  crisis,  re- 
turned to  the  Cabinet  by  appointing  M.  Oldenburg  to  the  post 
of  Minister  of  Education,  A.  V.  Kartashev  to  the  post  of  Pro- 
curator of  the  Holy  Synod,  and  F.  Golovine — Controller  of 
State. 

However,  the  crisis  was  not  abated.  The  extreme  gravity  of 
the  situation  impelled  the  Provisional  Government  to  convoke 
an  extraordinary  National  Conference,  which  met  in  Mos- 
cow on  August  26,  1917.  The  composition  of  the  Conference 
was  as  follows :  188  members  of  the  four  Dumas,  100 
representatives    of   the   Peasants,   229    representatives    of   the 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  435 

Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  147  delegates 
from  the  Municipalities,  113  representatives  of  the  Union  of 
Zemstvos  and  Towns,  150  representatives  from  industrial 
organizations  and  banks,  313  representatives  of  cooperative 
organizations,  and  176  representatives  of  trade  unions. 

The  Conference  could  not  accomplish  anything  concrete 
since  its  members,  in  the  main,  were  not  elected  but  invited  by 
the  Provisional  Government  and  since  its  resolutions  could 
have  no  binding  power,  either  on  the  various  Russian  organiza- 
tions and  groups  or  on  the  Provisional  Government.  The  only 
purpose  of  this  Conference  was  to  give  the  possibility  for  ex- 
pression, during  this  grave  crisis,  to  the  various  voices  in 
Russia's  political  life  and,  if  possible,  to  bring  the  various 
interests  to  a  compromise  which  later  might  be  embodied  in 
a  concrete  political  program.  The  first  part  of  this  purpose 
was  achieved,  and  the  speeches  of  Kerensky,  Tscheidze,  Tsere- 
telli,  Miliukov,  Bublikov,  General  Kornilov,  General  Kaledine, 
Plekhanov,  Breshko-Breshkovskaya,  Peter  Kropotkin  and 
other  leaders  express  so  thoroughly  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
of  Russia  at  this  critical  moment  that  the  National  Conference 
in  Moscow  will  forever  remain  an  important  source  of  knowl- 
edge for  anyone  interested  in  the  Russian  Revolution.  The 
events  which  occurred  after  the  Conference  show,  however, 
that  the  second  task  of  the  Conference,  the  achievement  of 
national  unity  of  all  Russia's  progressive  forces,  was  not  re- 
alized and  the  disintegration  of  Russia  not  stopped. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  Conference  the  following  message 
was  received  from  President  Wilson  and  read  amid  enthusi- 
astic applause : 

"President  of  the  National  Council  Assembly,  Moscow: 

I  take  the  liberty  to  send  to  the  members  of  the  great  council  now- 
meeting  in  Moscow  the  cordial  greetings  of  their  friends,  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  to  express  their  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  ideals  of  democracy  and  self-government  against  all  enemies  within 
and  without,  and  to  give  their  renewed  assurance  of  every  material 
and  moral  assistance  they  can  extend  to  the  Government  of  Russia  in 


436  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the   promotion   of  the   common   cause   in   which    the   two   nations   are 
unselfishly  united." 

The  Conference  was  opened  in  the  Moscow  Grand  Theatre 
by  Premier  A.  F.  Kerensky,  who  addressed  those  present  in 
behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

Kerensky's  Speech 

"In  the  name  of  the  Provisional  Government,  I  greet  the  citizens 
of  Russia  assembled  here;  in  particular  do  I  greet  our  brother-war- 
riors who  are  now,  with  great  manliness  and  unbounded  heroism, 
defending  the  borders  of  the  Russian  State  under  the  leadership  of 
their  commanders.   (Applause.) 

In  this  great  and  terrible  hour,  when  in  suffering  and  severe  trial 
is  being  born  and  created  a  new,  free  and  great  Russia,  the  Pro- 
visional Government  has  called  you  to  assemble  here,  citizens  of  the 
great  country  which  has  just  now  forever  thrown  off  the  chains  of 
slavery,  violence,  and  despotism,  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
dulging in  controversies.  (Boisterous  applause.) 

It  has  not  called  you  together  here  to  discuss  questions  of  program, 
or,  still  less,  to  allow  any  attempts,  from  whatever  sources  they  may 
come,  to  take  advantage  of  the  present  Conference  or  the  exceptionally 
difficult  position  of  the  Russian  State,  or  to  encourage  any  attempts 
at  undermining  the  power  of  the  Provisional  Government,  which, 
by  the  will  of  the  Revolution  and  the  people,  possesses  authority 
until  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly, — the  Provisional 
Government  having  been  authorized  to  defend  the  country  and  to  safe- 
guard the  achievements  of  the  Revolution,  has  summoned  you,  sons 
of  free  Russia,  in  order  to  tell  you  frankly  and  openly  the  real  truth 
about  that  which  awaits  you  and  which  our  great  but  exhausted  coun- 
try is  living  through  at  present. 

The  Provisional  Government,  which  may  change  its  personnel,  but 
whose  basic  problems  remain  unaltered,  and  which,  from  the  moment 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  old  despotic  order  and  until  the  Constituent 
Assembly  is  convened,  regards  itself  as  the  only  depository  of  the 
sovereign  rights  of  the  Russian  people,  has  great  faith  in  the  mind 
and   conscience   of   the   people.    (Applause.) 

Let  every  one  who  makes  any  attempt  to  raise  an  armed  hand 
against  the  people's  power  beware,  for  such  an  attempt  will  be 
stopped  with  blood  and  iron.   (Boisterous  applause.) 

This  warning  is  intended  especially  for  those  conspirators  who 
think  that  the  time  has  come  when  they  can  overthrow  the  revolu- 
tionary authority  by  force  of  arms.  (Shouts:  "Bravo!"  Boisterous 
applause.)  Our  authority  is  based  not  on  the  compulsion,  not  on 
the  violence  and  irresponsibility  which  were  the  bulwarks  of  the  old 
regime.     Our  power  is  founded  on  the  great  confidence  of  the  broad 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscou  43 


masses  of  the  people  (Shouts:  "Bravo!"  Applause.)  and  of  those  mil- 
lions of  our  brothers  who  have  taken  up  arms  in  defense  of  the 
country  and  the  Revolution.  The  Provisional  Government,  which 
has  from  the  very  beginning  and  until  now  taken  the  only  possible 
course,  from  our  point  of  view,  the  course  of  the  broadest  possible 
unification  of  all  forces  sincerely  faithful  to  the  Revolution  to  the 
extent  of  submitting  their  own  or  class  interests  to  the  great  and 
sacred  duty  of  preserving  the  heritage  of  our  ancestors  and  the  honor 
and  dignity  of  the  free  Russian  Democracy,  (Applause.)  the  Pro- 
visional Government  is  firmly  convinced  that  assembled  here,  in  the 
heart  of  our  State,  every  one  of  us  will  forget  everything  except  con- 
scientious duty  towards  our  native  land  and  towards  the  great  con- 
quests of  the  Revolution — liberty,  equality  and  fraternity.   (Applause.) 

The  situation,  citizens,  is  very  difficult,  for  our  country  is  passing 
through  an  hour  of  extreme  danger.  Let,  therefore,  those  in  whom 
a  heart  still  beats  and  in  whose  soul  the  old  regime  has  not  burned 
out  completely  the  feeling  of  loyalty  and  love  to  our  common  cause, 
— let  all  those  understand  this  declaration  of  ours,  the  most  im- 
portant declaration  which  the  Provisional  Government  has  considered 
it  its  duty  to  make.  We  are  told  that  perhaps  we  deliberately  paint 
the  situation  dark  and  exaggerate  the  danger  in  order  to  frighten  some 
of  the  people — to  intimidate  some  and  thus  strengthen  the  authority 
of  our  own  power.  But  you  know,  citizens,  that  until  now  we  have 
not  convoked  such  an  assembly;  the  Provisional  Government  as  a 
whole,  and  its  members  individually,  I  among  them,  have  repeatedly 
given  warning  of  the  terrible  hour  which  may  come. 

Starving  cities,  the  more  and  more  disorganized  transportation 
system. — this  artery  that  carries  food  to  the  Army  and  Navy  and  all 
the  citizens  of  the  Russian  State, — the  falling  off  in  the  output  of 
industrial  labor,  the  open  refusal  to  support  the  country  by  great 
sacrifices  of  wealth  and  property  on  the  part  of  the  property- 
owning  classes,  (Applause.) — all  this  has  brought  us  to  the  state 
where  the  decrease  in  the  joint  output,  due  to  the  theft  and  waste 
of  the  national  wealth,  the  weapons  of  defense  and  production, 
is  accompanied  by  exhaustion  of  the  Government  treasury  and  a 
great  financial  and  currency  crisis.  The  same  situation  and,  in  fact, 
worse,  may  be  observed  in  the  political  tendencies  where  the  process 
of  disorganization  and  the  falling  apart  into  new  parties  and  groups, 
unfriendly  to  each  other,  works  great  havoc  which  is  strength- 
ened by  the  separatist  aspirations  on  the  part  of  several  nationalities 
of  Russia  seeking  salvation,  not  in  a  closer  unity  with  the  vital  forces 
of  the  Russian  State,  but  in  the  desire  to  more  clearly  and  definitely 
mark  off  their  fate  from  ours,  although  we  equally,  unselfishly  and  dis- 
interestedly fight  for  the  freedom  and  self-determination  of  all  na- 
tionalities. (Applause.) 


438  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

And  finally,  on  top  of  all  this,  we  have  the  great  trials  and  the 
unbearable  disgrace  at  the  front,  where  parts  of  the  Russian  Army, 
under  the  pressure  and  attack  of  the  enemy  forces,  gave  way  and 
went  backwards  out  of  faint-heartedness  and  contemptible  cowardice, 
forgetting  their  duty  towards  the  country  and  the  newly-born  free- 
dom. (Applause.) 

I,  myself,  shared  the  great  desire  and  enthusiastic  aspiration  of  the 
Russian  Army  to  launch  the  forward  drive;  this  showed  that  our 
people  and  our  country  still  retained  some  of  their  former  vigor. 
The  great  attempt  failed  and  our  hopes  were  crushed.  All  the  best 
forces  of  the  nation  and  the  Army,  the  triumph  of  Democracy,  the 
possibility  of  peace  and  the  cause  of  the  Russian  Revolution  were 
bound  up  with  our  triumph  at  the  front.  But  our  hopes  were  crushed. 
And  this  evil  was  brought  into  the  Army  from  the  outside;  it  was 
the  result  of  that  great  disorganization,  that  great  curse  which  took 
possession  of  the  Russian  people,  making  them  forget  their  duty, 
(Applause.)  and  forge  with  their  own  hands  new  chains  of  despotism 
and  oppression.    (Applause.) 

If  we  are  now  confronted  with  a  reign  of  lawlessness,  lack  of 
respect  for  man  and  his  rights,  mockery  at  the  new  law,  then 
we,  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  who  are  wise  not  by  years 
perhaps,  but  by  experience,  recognize  with  what  heritage  we  have 
to  deal,  and  with  great  patience,  with  great  love,  we  proceed  to 
restore,  and  if  need  be,  force  the  recognition  of  the  common  law 
and  the  great  principles  of  universal  human  justice,  and  finally 
cope  with  this  very  heritage  which  manifested  itself  in  that  drama 
which  took  place  on  the  battlefield.  Everybody  to  whom  the  secrets 
of  the  Army  of  the  Russian  autocracy  were  open  knows  that 
this  Army  had  feet  of  clay  and  almost  no  head.  .  This  Army 
never  answered  the  demands  of  modern  warfare:  it  had  a  com- 
manding staff  among  whom  there  were  scarcely  any  who  had  suf- 
ficient military  training  and  its  soldiers  had  no  civic  training.  This- 
Army  was  kept  together  not  by  the  great  enthusiasm  of  a  common 
aim  or  a  common  love,  but,  unfortunately,  by  the  hated  chains  of 
compulsion  and  the  unreasoning  submission  of  man  to  iron,  and  often 
by  the  unreasonable  will  of  those  in  control.  And,  speaking  of  the 
Army,  which  I  dare  say  I  know  sufficiently  well,  I  must  here  before 
the  whole  Russian  assembly  give  expression  to  the  deep  admiration 
and  great  love  which  the  Provisional  Government,  and  I  believe  the 
whole  country,  has  for  the  brain  of  the  Russian  Army,  for  the  rank 
and  file  officers  in  active  service,  not  careerists,  uncomplaining  in 
difficult  circumstances,  and  at  times  of  great  trial  prepared  to  give 
their  lives  for  the  Fatherland.   (Boisterous  applause.) 

And  here,  citizens,  under  those  conditions  of  cowardice,  disinte- 
gration,   economic    ruin,    and    the    constantly    increasing    centrifugal 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  439 


forces,  the  Russian  people,  headed  by  the  Provisional  Government, 
have  to  defend  the  Fatherland  by  saving  the  Revolution,  or  save 
the  Revolution  by  defending  the  Fatherland.  For  us  and  for  me 
there  is  no  Fatherland  wthout  freedom  and  no  freedom  without  a 
Fatherland.    (Boisterous  applause  and  shouts:  "Bravo!") 

We  expect  from  you.  representatives  of  the  Russian  land,  not 
civil  strife  nor  personal  controversies,  nor  malicious  criticism,  but 
we  expect  you  to  carefully  consider  the  country's  needs.  Do  you 
feel  within  you  this  great  enthusiasm  for  self-denial  in  the  interests 
of  the  common  cause?  Do  you  feel  within  you  the  power  and  will 
to  sacrifice  and  labor?  Do  you  realize  that  it  is  not  talk  but  the 
greatest  possible  effort  to  serve  the  country  that  is  required?  Will 
you.  sons  of  the  great  Fatherland  assembled  here  in  Moscow,  demon- 
strate to  the  whole  world  and  to  our  enemies  your  great  unified 
power,  or  will  you  present  to  the  world  a  new  picture  of  decadence 
and  earn  the  deserved  contempt  of  our  enemies!   (Applause.) 

Citizens,  the  Army,  of  course,  is  our  great  hope,  being  the  only 
force  which,  in  unity  with  the  people  and  with  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment, may  decide  the  issue. 

We  saw  how  the  peace  movement  conducted  by  people  inex- 
perienced in  government  affairs  though  inspired  by  a  real,  almost 
mad  love  for  the  Fatherland  failed  to  bring  nearer  the  desired  peace; 
on  the  contrary,  it  retarded  its  coming,  because,  to  the  sins  of 
autocracy,  it  added  its  share  in  spreading  lawlessness  in  the  Army, 
forgetting  the  common  aim  for  special,  often  personal  considerations. 

We  have  the  support  of  the  armed  forces  of  the  Democracy  and 
of  the  revolutionary  people.  We  came  into  the  world  of  democratic 
nations  with  our  heads  raised  high,  and  we  remained  there  as  equals 
in  the  great  struggle,  at  the  death  feast  of  the  peoples  of  Europe. 

But  we  also  came  there  with  our  word  and  our  will.  And  beware 
that  the  blows  at  the  Army,  the  blows  at  the  will  and  sovereign 
authority  of  the  Russian  people  do  not  undermine  the  very  ideas  for 
which  we  are  fighting  and  open  the  gates,  which  you  think  we  defend 
so  poorly,  to  those  who  hate  freedom.  We  are  determined  that 
Russia  shall  be  ranked  among  the  World  Powers.  (Boisterous  ap- 
plause.) 

A  short  time  ago  we  indignantly  replied  to  a  proposal  to  conclude 
a  separate  peace.  A  few  days  ago  we  witnessed  another  attempt, 
equally  base,  directed  against  our  Allies.  The  latter  rejected  it  with 
equal  indignation,  and  in  the  name  of  the  great  Russian  people  I  say 
to  our  Allies  that  it  was  the  only  reply  we  expected  of  them. 

Misfortunes  unite.  Of  all  who  have  endured  great  trials  I  cannot 
but  mention  the  Roumanian  people,  and  I  must  add  that  if  as  a  result 
of  common  misfortune  and  common  mistakes  they  will  temporarily 
have  to  leave  their  Fatherland,  they  will  find  within  the  boundaries  of 


440  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

our  State  refuge  and  welcome.  The  symptoms,  the  weakening  of  our 
front,  and  also,  the  indications  of  the  decline  of  our  supreme  authority 
in  the  international  and  in  the  domestic  life  of  our  free,  revolutionary, 
democratic  Russia — these  menacing  symptoms  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment sees  reflected  not  only  in  the  not  altogether  impartial  step 
of  the  Pope,  but  also  in  the  aspirations  gf  the  various  nationalities  of 
Russia  who  seemed  indissolubly  bound  with  the  free  Russian  Democ- 
racy by  a  common  struggle  for  freedom. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  perhaps  in  the  near  future  we  will  have  to 
face  a  great  trial  in  Finland,  which  enjoys  full  autonomy,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  our  will  expressed  in  a  special  act  granted  and  restored 
complete  home  rule  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Finland.  In  a  few  days 
efforts  will  probably  be  made  there  to  take  advantage  of  our  dif- 
ficulties in  order  to  settle  by  physical  force  problems  and  aims  at 
the  present  time  unattainable,  and  disastrous  for  the  country  as  a 
whole. 

I,  as  the  head  of  the  Provisonal  Government,  as  Minister  of  War, 
order:  'Do  not  let  that  come  to  pass.'  (Boisterous  applause.  Shouts: 
"Bravo!")  And  we  hope  that  the  whole  nation  will  support  our  de- 
cision. (Applause.)  We  have  not  overstepped  the  constitutional  limits 
even  once.  W^-j^mdrrTnT^uardian  of  Russian  as  well  as  of  Finnish 
freedom,  and  in  the  nearest  future  the  Finnish  people  will  become 
convinced  that  if  they  refrain  from  violence,  the  Russian  authorities 
will  not  forget  them  but  grant  still  more  freedom.  I  do  not  want 
to  touch  on  the  other  intimate  and  fraternal  conflict.  I  believe  that 
the  many  millions  of  toiling  peasants  and  city  laborers,  our  brothers 
by  blood  and  by  common  fate,  in  spite  of  the  many  offenses,  due 
perhaps  to  misunderstanding  and  mutual  disagreements,  will  never 
betray  us. 

Our  Army  is  a  power  which  we  must  keep  pure  and  clean  and 
beautiful  in  itself  —  this  Army  has  become  somewhat  afflicted 
with  the  corroding  ulcer  of  the  same  disease  we  have  inherited  from 
the  past,  the  same  lack  of  understanding,  conscious  manhood  and 
readiness  for  sacrifice  which  has  taken  possession  of  the  whole 
Russian  people. 

But  before  we  throw  a  stone  at  those  who  have  not  stood  the 
test  there,  let  us  look,  citizens,  into  your  own  souls.  Have  you  stood 
the  test?  Were  you,  gentlemen,  at  your  post  of  duty,  were  you  here 
merely  speaking  of  sacrifices,  or  were  you  actually  making  them? 
(Boisterous  applause.)  And  Irave  you  seen  at  the  head  of  those  who 
really  sacrifice,  who  go  voluntarily, — they  did  so  recently, — not  the 
poor,  ignorant  and  hungry,  but  the  educated,  wealthy  and  wise?  And 
do  you  know  that  those  people  spend  days  and  nights  in  the  trenches, 
in  the  mud,  amidst  poisonous  gases,  poorly  fed  and  semi-clad,  and 
are  slowly  dying, — do  you  realize  that  those  men  are  there   not  de- 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  1  1 1 


fending  personal,  group,  or  class  interests,  but  are  there  because  of 
their  boundless  love  for  the  country!  (Applause.)  They  hear  that  in 
the  rear  people  are  threatening  one  another  and  at  the  least  weaken- 
ing, at  the  slightest  provocation,  here  or  there  is  raised  not  a  red 
banner  but  a  banner  stained  with  a  brother's  blood  through  mutiny 
and  wilfulness.  They  hear  of  those  efforts  which  are  made  every 
minute  to  overthrow  the  hated  democratic  revolutionary  power. 
(Boisterous  applause.)  And  to  you  who  have  come  from  the  front, 
I,  your  Minister  of  War  and  Commander-in-Chief,  say,  T  govern  as  a 
member  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  express  to  you  its  will, 
and  there  is  no  will  and  authority  in  the  Army  above  the  will  and 
authority  of  the  Provisional  Government.  (Boisterous  applause.  Shouts 
of  "Bravo!")  You  may  rest  assured  we  will  protect  you  from  the 
decomposing  influence  creeping  into  the  Army  and  working  the  most 
terrible  destruction  possible  in  its  ranks;  for  shame,  this  making  it 
easy  for  the  people  who  fear  death  to  say  that  they  do  not  want  to 
fight  for  our  principles.   (Boisterous  applause.     Shouts:  "Bravo!") 

We  will  fight  against  it  with  might  and  main.  This  is  the  anarchy 
of  the  Left,  this  is  the  Bolshevism;  whatever  it  may  be  called,  it  will 
find  in  us,  in  the  Russian  Democracy,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  love 
for  the  State  and  for  the  ideals  of  freedom,  its  enemy.  (Applause.) 
But  I  say  once  more:  'Any  effort  to  utilize  the  weakening  of  discipline 
will  be  dealt  with  by  me.'  (Boisterous  applause.) 

While  still  Minister  of  Justice  I  introduced  into  the  Provisional 
Government  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty.  (Applause; 
shouts:  "Bravo!")  And  as  Minister  of  War  I  introduced  into  the 
Provisional  Government  the  partial  restoration  of  the  death  penalty. 
(Shouts  of  "Right!"  Applause.)  How  can  one  applaud  when  we 
speak  of  death?  (Thundering  applause.)  Don't  you  know  that  at  this 
momervL-arui-  a4  this  -hour  a  part  of  our  soul  was  killed  "J  Rut  if  it 
shall  be  necessary  for  the  saving  of  the  State,  we  will  kill  our  soul  to 
save  the" State.  (Thundering  applause.)  But  let  every  one  know 
that  this  measure  is  a  great  temptation  and  let  no  one  dare  to  presenl 
any  unconditional  demands  on  that  score.  We  shall  prevent  this. 
We  only  say  that  if  the  stupendous  destruction,  the  disintegration, 
the  cowardice,  the  treacherous  murder,  the  attack  on  peaceful  in- 
habitants, the  burning  of  inhabited  places,  the  robbery,— if  these 
continue  in  spite  of  our  warnings,  the  Provisional  Government  will 
find  the  power  to  combat  them  as  far  as  necessary.  And,  citizens, 
nobody  will  be  able  to  take  away  that  which  was  won  by  the  Russian 
people  and  the  Russian  Army. 

Gentlemen,  that  which  many  attribute  now  to  the  Revolution  was 
an  uncontrollable  force  and  not  the  play  of  the  conscious  will  of  the 
two  forces  of  the  Revolution.  This  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that 
everything  that   rouses   the   indignation   of   the  present   rehabilitators 


442  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

of  the  Army  was  established  prior  to  me,  in  spite  of  me,  and  by  their 
own  hands.  (Applause;  voices:  "Right!")  It  was  a  tempest;  it  was 
only  a  protest  at  the  disintegration  of  the  old,  a  change  of  old  bonds 
for  the  new  ones  built  casually  and  in  haste.  This  haste  was  neces- 
sary, otherwise  the  whole  enormous  mass  of  material  would  have 
turned  to  dust  after  the  fall  of  the  despotic  military  rule.  But  we 
checked  the  tendency  to  disintegrate.  This  work,  poorly  done  at 
first,  must  now  be  put  in  good  shape.  Everything  will  be  put  in  its 
place.  Everybody  will  know  his  rights  and  his  duties.  And  not  only 
those  who  obey  the  commands  will  know  their  duties,  but  also  those 
who  command.  (Applause;  shouts:  "Bravo!")  The  commissaries  and 
the  committees  and  the  disciplinary  courts  will  be  preserved.  (Ap- 
plause, mainly  from  the  seats  of  the  representatives  of  the  Army.) 
But  everything  will  assume  the  forms  that  are  needed  now  in  the 
Army  and  which  must  remain  not  a  transitory  phenomenon  but  an 
immutable  part  of  the  Army  organism. 

At  the  very  outset.  I  began  the  systematically  planned  work  of 
reconsidering,  codifying  and  shaping  all  the  institutions  that  are  new 
in  the  Army,  that  must  be  made  permanent  by  law.  And  above  every- 
thing. I  consider  it  necessary  and  important  to  say  right  now  to  the 
whole  Army,  from  top  to  bottom  and  vice  versa, — the  whole  Army,  ir- 
respective of  rank  or  position,  must  present  an  example  of  discipline 
and  of  obedience  of  the  lower  ranks  to  the  higher,  and  of  all  to  the 
supreme  authority.  (Applause.)  I,  as  Minister  of  War.  dare  to  say 
to  you:  'Citizens  of  Russia,  the  sickness  of  the  Army  organism  was 
just  as  passing  and  accidental  as  was  accidental  and  passing  the  sick- 
ness of  the  whole  Russian  State,  and  under  the  staggering  blows 
of  great  trials  is  born  the  will  to  live,  submission  to  discipline,  and  a 
sense  of  duty,  and  in  this  will,  in  this  wisdom,  in  this  conscience 
is  the  safeguard  of  the  renaissance  and  salvation,  both  of  Russia 
and  the  Russian  Army.  (Continued  applause.) 

From  the  very  beginning  of  our  Government,  from  the  12th  of 
March,  we  do  not  consider  it  a  fault  that  we  were  too  patient, 
that  we  were  too  tolerant  in  that  struggle  which  we  had  to  wage; 
our  task  has  been  possible  only  because  every  time  that  the  crest  of 
the  wave,  dangerous  for  the  Government,  rose  high,  the  will  and  the 
very  consciousness  of  the  honest  citizens  of  the  Russian  State 
came  to  our  assistance.  (Voices:  "Right!")  And  that  is  why  we  have 
summoned  vou  here  in  order  to  hear  your  voice,  full  of  enthusiasm 
and  love  for  freedom  and  the  Fatherland,  which  makes  us,  your 
representatives,  still  more  powerful  in  the  eyes  of  the  enemies  of  our 
country  and  brings  us  closer  to  the  large  masses  of  the  people.  I 
can  a^ure  vou  that  we  are  guided  by  nothing  else  but  the  welfare  ot 
the  country  and  if,  I  repeat  again,  we  shall  be  lacking  intelligence  and 
conscience,   if  we  are   overcome   by  the   wave   of   destruction   and   the 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  443 


disintegration  resulting  from  selfish  interests  and  party  conflicts,  then 
before  we  perish  we  will  call  the  country  to  our  aid.  But  now,  we 
will  ourselves,  with  the  unlimited  power  at  our  command,  deal  with 
violence  and  lawlessness  with  an  iron  hand."   (Applause.) 


PREMIER     KERENSKY'S     speech     was     followed     by 
speeches  by  the  Minister  of  Interior,  N.  D.  Avksentiev. 
the  Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry,  S.  N.  Prokopovich, 
and   the   Minister  of  Finance,   N.  V.   Nekrasov.     Nekrasov's 
speech,  devoted  to  the  financial  situation,  attracted  much  at- 
tention not  only  in  Russia,  but  also  abroad. 
Nekrasov's  Speech 

"Citizens,  representatives  of  the  Russian  Land!  I  cannot  say  that 
after  having,  at  the  persistent  request  of  the  Prime  Minister,  accepted 
the  post  of  Minister  of  Finance,  I  was  very  much  puzzled  or  startled 
by  the  picture  which  presented  itself  to  me  as  I  became  more  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  state  of  affairs.  As  a  member  of  the 
Provisional  Government  I  was  familiar  with  the  reports  of  my  two 
predecessors  and  knew  sufficiently  well  what  the  financial  situation 
was  like.  I  realized  perfectly  well  the  extent  of  the  impending  finan- 
cial disaster. — I  shall  say  it  openly, — the  gravest  of  all,  for  the  finan- 
cial disruption  mirrors  and  accentuates  all  those  unfavorable  condi- 
tions in  the  country's  political  and  economic  life  which  arose  as  a 
result  of  the  war  and  the  Revolution.  You  are  already  acquainted, 
from  the  report  of  the  Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry,  with  those 
figures  which  shed  light  on  the  problems  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance 
at  the  present  moment.  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  calling  them  to 
your  attention  just  once  more,  in  order  that  the  facts  may  stand  out 
more  clearly. 

Allow  me  to  cite  one  figure — 15  billion  rubles  deficit  for  the 
year  ending  January  1st,  1918.  It  seems  there  is  no  need  to  dwell 
on  details,  or  to  point  out  any  other  instances.  This  figure  speaks 
for  itself.  In  comparison  with  it,  all  the  other  data  that  I  shall 
have  to  present  in  connection  with  other  phases  of  the  question,  will 
fade  into  insignificance. 

How  did  we  arrive  at  this  point?  Citizens,  the  opinion  is  now 
widely  spread  to  the  effect  that  the  Revolution  was  the  factor  which 
had  a  very  detrimental  effect  on  our  financial  condition.  There  is 
some  truth  in  that  assertion.  The  impartial  language  of  statistics 
tells  us  that  even  taking  into  consideration  all  the  unfavorable  condi- 
tions that  had  accumulated  up  to  the  moment  of  the  Revolution,  taking 
into  consideration  all  the  unfavorable  circumstances  which  have  in- 
finitely multiplied  our  troubles,  rt  still  does  not  enable  us  to  account 


444  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


for  that  financial  ruin  which  we  are  facing,  unless  we  recognize  the 
role  of  the  Revolution  and  of  those  peculiar  circumstances  which  the 
Revolution  brought  about.  The  leaders  of  the  Revolution  must,  in 
this  matter,  face  the  truth  squarely. 

Not  a  single  period  in  the  history  of  Russia,  not  a  single  auto- 
cratic administration  was  as  lavish,  as  extravagant  as  the  Government 
of  Revolutionary  Russia.  We  must  now  not  only  find  fault  with  and 
discover  the  blunders  of  the  old  regime,  but  we  must  also  analyze 
impartially  the  activities  of  the  revolutionary  period.  Should  the 
Provisional  Government  disagree  with  me  in  this  respect,  neither  I 
nor  my  colleague  in  charge  of  the  Department  will  be  able  to  assume 
the  burden  of  responsibility  for  Russia's  finances.  If  we  speak  in 
statistical  terms,  there  is  no  table  that  can  more  eloquently  and 
fully  characterize  the  role  of  the  revolutionary  period  than  the  table 
regarding  the  issue  of  paper  money  since  the  war  began. 

In  1914, — I  am  referring  to  the  latter  half  of  the  year,  those  months 
that  followed  the  outbreak  of  the  war, — paper  rubles  were  issued  at 
an  average  of  219  million  per  month;  for  1915  this  average  was  in- 
creased to  223  million,  during  1916  it  rose  to  290  million,  during  the 
first  two  months  of  1917  the  monthly  average  reached  423  million, 
and  from  March  1st  to  July  16th  paper  rubles  were  issued  at  the  rate 
of  832  million  per  month. 

A  limit  must  be  set.  Those  expenditures  we  have  been  making 
are  beyond  our  means.  Russia  must  state  this  straightforwardly 
and  definitely.  (Applause.)  Accepting  the  post  of  Minister  of 
Finance,  I  have,  together  with  my  colleague  in  charge  of  the  De- 
partment, put  squarely  before  the  Provisional  Government  the 
immediate  and  energetic  revision  of  our  entire  budget  from  top  to 
bottom.  (Applause.)  I  have  raised  the  question  of  calling  upon  com- 
petent people  outside  of  any  party  or  group  influence  to  revise  the 
budget.  (Applause.)  I  know  that  those  to  whom  the  Provisional 
Government  will  now  appeal  for  help  in  this  matter  will  not  refuse, 
for  this  invitation  will  be  addressed  to  those  who  are  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  our  budget,  with  our  finances.  And  in  making  this 
appeal  the  Provisional  Government  will  be  guided  not  by  party 
affiliation,  but  exclusively  by  the  knowledge  of  and  experience  in 
our  affairs.    (Applause.) 

Allow  me,  gentlemen,  to  touch  upon  another  grave  question.  In 
this  assembly  one  must  tell  only  the  truth,  no  matter  how  bitter  it  may 
be.  I  must  state  that  the  new  revolutionary  order  draws  more  out  of 
the  treasury  than  the  old  regime  did.  Citizens,  we  cannot  pass  by 
this  fact  without  notice.  We  do  not  know  yet  the  total  burden  of 
expenditures  which  will  be  thrust  upon  the  State  Treasury,  but  we 
are  already  familiar  with  some  of  its  features.  According  to  pre- 
liminary calculations,   the   expenses   of  food   supply   committees,    and 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  445 


the  various  organizations  connected  with  them  will  amount  t 
million  rubles  yearly.  (Commotion  on  all  benches.  Shouts  of  aston- 
ishment.) The  expenses  of  the  Land  Committees,  in  the  round 
numbers  given  out  by  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  approximate  140 
million  rubles  yearly.  I  do  not  have  to  tell  you  that  the  State 
Treasury  cannot  stand  such  heavy  disbursements,  and  that  a  stop  must 
be   put   to   them.    (Thundering  applause.      Shouts:   "Right!") 

But  there  is  still  another  factor  which  greatly  affects  the  financial 
condition  of  the  State,  —  I  have  in  mind  the  increase  of  wages. 
(Shouts  from  the  Right  and  Center:  "Correct!")  The  Poutilov  mills 
alone  are  going  to  present,  before  the  end  of  this  coming  year,  a  claim 
upon  the  State  Treasury  to  the  amount  of  90  million  rubles.  (Com- 
motion on  the  Left.)  I  shall  not  trouble  you  by  citing  any  other 
figures.  I  presume  that  what  has  been  said  is  enough.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Revolution  the  demands  of  wage  increases  were  being 
granted  freely  not  only  by  the  munitions  factories,  but  also  by  some 
private  concerns,  and  it  seemed  then  to  be  a  private  matter  which 
the  employers  and  employees  would  settle  among  themselves.  But 
this  was  a  great  error. 

In  the  final  analysis,  all  these  demands  appear  in  the  memorandum 
book  of  the  Minister  of  Finance,  inasmuch  as  when  a  private  enter- 
prise finds  itself  unable  to  stand  the  heavy  expenditures  which  this 
increase  involves,  it  applies  to  the  Minister  of  Finance  or  to  the  State 
Bank  demanding  extra  allowances  or  loans,  etc.  And  it  is  significant 
that  in  such  cases  the  demands  of  the  industrial  establishments 
are  supported  primarily  by  the  representatives  of  the  laboring 
democracy.  It  has  become  a  common  occurrence  that  an  allowance 
is  asked  for  not  by  the  proprietor,  not  by  the  manager,  but  by  the 
representatives  of  labor.  From  these  delegates  we  learn  that  the 
enterprises  actually  cannot  exist  without  the  aid  of  the  State. 

Here  are  a  few  more  figures:  As  compared  with  1916,  the  de- 
crease in  land  revenue  for  the  first  three  months  after  the  Revolution 
amounts  to  32%;  the  city  real  estate  tax  has  yielded  41%  less  revenue 
than  for  the  corresponding  period  of  1916;  the  taxes  on  rent  collected 
during  the  first  three  months  of  the  Revolution  were  43%  less  than 
during  the  corresponding  period  in  1916;  war  revenue  was  29%  less; 
industrial  enterprises  yielded  19%  less;  the  tax  on  mortgages — 119! 
less;  the  inheritance  tax  sank  to  16%  below  what  it  was  in  1916; 
insurance  tax — 27%  less;  and  the  redemption  duties  yielded  65% 
less.  Citizens,  the  situation  is  critical,  and  only  increased  pressure 
exerted  in  the  collection  of  duties  and  taxes  will  enable  us  to  a 
certain  extent  to  cover  our  deficits. 

I  have  already  told  you  in  the  beginning  that  the  finances,  like  a 
mirror,  reflect  all  our  present  difficulties.  In  this  sense  the  Department 
which  I  represent  is  an  extremely  sensitive  transmitter  of  all  changes. 


446  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


The  Ministry  of  Finance  is,  more  than  any  other  Ministry,  interested 
in  a  firm,  definite  and  resolute  policy  of  the  type  outlined  by  our 
Prime  Minister.  And,  finally,  I  must  point  out  that  our  finances  are 
closely  bound  up  with  the  country's  defense.  I  shall  be  more  definite: 
our  power  at  home  and  at  the  front  varies  in  direct  ratio  with  the 
means  which  the  Ministry  of  Finance  has  at  its  disposal. 

Citizens,  for  the  country's  salvation  it  is  necessary  to  establish 
order,  organize  the  defenses  and  make  every  sacrifice  to  that  end.  To- 
gether with  the  entire  Provisional  Government,  I  ask  you:  'Are  you 
ready  and  are  those  who  sent  you  here  ready  to  accept  these  three 
basic  conditions  and  to  carry  them  out  in  practice  to  the  best  of  your 
ability?'  "  (Continued  applause.) 

After  the  speeches  of  the  representatives  of  the  First,  Second 
and  Third  Dumas,  the  National  Conference  was  addressed  by 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies,  General  L.  G. 
Kornilov. 

General  Kornilov's  Speech 

"As  Commander-in-Chief  I  greet  the  Provisional  Government. 
I  greet  the  entire  Conference  in  the  name  of  the  active  armies.  I 
would  have  been  happy  to  add  that  I  greet  you  in  the  name  of  those 
armies  which  there,  on  the  frontiers,  present  a  strong  and  impenetrable 
front  defending  Russia's  territory,  the  dignity  and  honor  of  Russia, 
but  with  deep  sorrow  I  must  say  that  I  am  not  certain  that  the 
Russian  Army  will,  without  hesitation,  fulfill  its  duty  towards  the 
Fatherland. 

My  telegram  of  July  9th  about  the  restoration  of  the  death 
penalty  on  the  military  field,  for  t-aitors  and  betrayers,  is  known 
to  all.  The  chief  reason  for  this  telegram,  the  cause  that  called  it 
forth  is  the  dishonor  of  the  debacle  at  Tarnopol  and  that  disgrace  which 
the  Russian  Army  up  to  the  present  time  has  never  known.  The  shame 
of  the  defeat  at  Tarnopol — the  inevitable  and  spontaneous  result  of 
that  unheard-of  disintegration  to  which  our  Army,  once  brave  and 
victorious,  was  brought  by  outside  influence  and  the  perfunctory 
measures  adopted  for  its  reorganization! 

The  measures  adopted  by  the  Provisional  Government  after  my 
telegram  have  undoubtedly  brought  a  healthier  spirit  into  the  Army, 
but  the  destructive,  disintegrating  propaganda  still  continues  in  the 
Army,  and  I  will  cite  facts. 

'For  some  time,  since  the  beginning  of  August,  the  soldiers  that 
have  turned  into  beasts,  that  have  lost  all  semblance  of  warriors, 
have  been  killing  their  commanders;  the  Commander  of  the  Rifle 
Guard  Regiment,  Colonel  Bikov;  (Voices:  "Let  us  honor  their  memory 
by  rising.")  the  Captain  of  the  same  regiment,  Kolobov.  who  was 
killed  on  the  Kalinitzi  station;  the  Officer  of  the  Guard.  Abramo- 
vitch;  the  Commanders  of  the  437th  and  the  43rd  Siberian  Regiments, 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscotv  447 


who  were  wounded  and  killed;  the  Commander,  Kurgashev,  of  the 
Dubnenski  Regiment  was  bayoneted  by  the  soldiers.  (Shouts:  "Were 
the  guilty  hanged?") 

But  when  the  regiment  that  refused  to  surrender  the  instigators 
and  criminals  was  surrounded  by  a  specially  chosen  division,  and  the 
commissary,  under  the  threat  of  annihilating  the  entire  regiment  by 
fire  and  sword,  demanded  that  those  criminals  be  surrendered,  there 
was  crying  and  imploring  for  mercy.  (Shouts:  "Disgrace!")  The 
criminals  were  surrendered,  they  were  court-martialed  and  are  now 
awaiting  the  penalty  which  they  will  not  escape.  (Shouts:  "Right!") 
Then  the  regiment  promised  to  atone  for  the  disgrace  of  its  treachery. 
Thus,  by  the  unshakable  will  of  the  revolutionary  authority,  crime 
was  checked  and  the  possibility  of  its  further  development  nipped 
in  the  bud. 

All  these  murders  have  been  committed  by  the  soldiers  in  a  state 
of  nightmare  due  to  hideous,  horrible  lawlessness,  ignorance  and 
rowdyism. 

Several  days  ago  when  the  Germans  attacked  Riga,  the  56th  Siber- 
ian Rifle  Regiment,  so  well  known  for  its  bravery  in  previous  battles, 
arbitrarily  left  its  position,  laid  down  the  arms  and  equipment  and 
fled.  (Shouts:  "Shame!")  And  only  through  armed  pressure,  after 
I  had,  by  telegraph,  ordered  the  destruction  of  that  regiment,  did  it 
return.  (Shouts:  "Right!"    Applause  from  the  Right.) 

Thus,  there  is  a  relentless  war  being  waged  in  the  Army  against 
anarchy,  and  the  anarchy  will  be  suppressed,  but  the  danger  of  new 
outrages  still  hangs  over  the  country.  There  is  still  the  danger  of 
new  losses  of  territory  and  cities,  and  danger  threatens  the  very 
Capital. 

The  condition  on  the  front  is  such  that  we,  on  account  of  the 
disintegration  of  the  Army,  have  lost  entire  Galicia,  we  have  lost  all 
Bucovina  and  the  fruit  of  our  victories  of  past  and  present  years. 
The  enemy,  in  several  places,  has  already  crossed  the  boundary  and  is 
threatening  our  most  fertile  States  in  the  South.  The  enemy  is  making 
attempts  to  end  the  resistance  of  the  Roumanian  Army  and  to  make 
Roumania  leave  our  alliance.  The  enemy  is  knocking  at  the  gates 
of  Riga,  and  if  the  condition  of  our  Army  will  not  enable  us  to  hold 
the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Riga,  the  road  to  Petrograd  will  be  open. 

As  an  inheritance  from  the  old  regime,  free  Russia  received  an 
Army  in  the  organization  of  which  there  were  considerable  short- 
comings, but  none  the  less  this  Army  was  firm,  pugnacious  and  ready 
for  sacrifices.  By  a  number  of  legislative  measures  passed  after  the 
Revolution,  by  people  who  did  not  understand  the  spirit  of  the  Army. 
this  Army  has  been  transformed  into  a  wild  mob,  valuing  nothing  but 
its  life.  There  were  instances  when  individual  regiments  expressed  a 
desire  to  conclude  peace  with  the  Germans,  and  were  ready  to  return 


448  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


to  the  enemy  the  captured  States  and  pay  indemnities  to  the  extent 
of  200  rubles  for  each  soldier. 

The  Army  must  be  restored,  by  all  means,  for  without  a  restored 
Army  there  is  no  free  Russia,  no  salvation  for  the  Fatherland.  For 
the  restoration  of  the  Army,  the  immediate  adoption  of  the  measures 
suggested  in  my  report  to  the  Provisional  Government  is  necessary. 
My  report  was  approved  by  the  Chief  of  the  Military  Department. 
Savinkov,  and  the  Commissaire  cooperating  with  the  Commander-in- 
Chief,  Filonenko.   (Shouts:  "Good!") 

I  will  briefly  present  to  you  the  most  important  issues  of  my 
report. 

The  conclusions  drawn  from  history  and  fighting  experience  show 
that  without  discipline  there  is  no  army.  Only  an  army  closely  bound 
by  rigid  discipline,  led  by  the  sole  will  of  its  leaders,  only  such  an 
army  can  be  victorious  and  is  deserving  of  victory.  Only  such  an 
army  can  withstand  all  the  trials  of  warfare.  Discipline  must  be 
established  in  the  everyday  work  of  the  army  by  giving  proper 
authority  to  the  superiors,  the  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers. 
They  must  be  given  power  to  regulate  the  necessary  inside  work,  force 
the  soldiers  to  feed  and  clean  the  horses,  clean  their  own  lodgings, — 
that  are  very  filthy  now, — and  thus  save  the  entire  living  staff  of  the 
Army  from  epidemic,  and,  I  will  say,  from  plague. 

I  must  remind  those  who  have  made  the  struggle  for  peace  their 
ultimate  goal,  that  the  condition  of  the  Army  at  present  is  such  that 
even  if,  to  the  great  dishonor  of  the  country,  the  conclusion  of  peace 
were  possible  now,  peace  could  not  be  concluded,  for  the  disintegration 
that  has  taken  hold  of  the  Army  cannot  be  realized,  for  the  undisci- 
plined, disorderly  mob  would  ravage  and  ruin  its  own  country.  (Shouts: 
"Right!"  Applause.) 

The  prestige  of  the  officers  must  be  restored.  The  officers' 
corps,  that  has  fought  valiantly  during  the  war,  that  has,  in  an  enor- 
mous majority,  gone  over  and  remained  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the 
Revolution,  should  now  be  morally  rewarded  for  all  the  humiliation 
and  systematic  jeering  it  has  had  to  undergo.  (Shouts:  "Right!") 
The  material  condition  of  the  officers  must  be  improved,  (Shouts 
from  the  Left:  "Ah-ha!")  of  their  families,  of  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  the  dead  heroes.  It  is  just  to  remark  that  this  is  almost  the  only 
body  in  Russia  that  never,  up  to  the  present,  has  mentioned  its 
needs,  that  has  not  demanded  the  betterment  of  its  material  condi- 
tions. Their  condition  can  be  illustrated  by  the  recent  instance  of 
that  ensign  who  was  picked  up  on  the  streets  of  Petrograd,  who  had 
dropped  dead  from  exhaustion  and  hunger. 

I  am  not  an  opponent  of  committees.  I  have  worked  with  them 
as  Commander  of  the  8th  Army,  and  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Southwestern  Front.  But  I  demand  that  their  activities  be  confined 
to  the  economic  and  interior  life   of  the   Army,  within   limits   defined 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  449 


by  the  law,  that  they  do  not  interfere  with  plans  of  military  operations, 
with  the  fighting,  and  the  election  of  officers.  I  recognize  the  commis- 
saries as  a  measure  necessary  at  the  present  time,  but  the  guaranty  of 
the  effectiveness  of  this  measure  lies  in  the  personal  staff  of  the  com- 
missariat which  must  consist  of  people  whose  democratic,  political 
trend  of  mind  is  marked  by  tact,  energy  and  lack  of  fear  of  responsi- 
bility, which  is  very  hard  at  times. 

I  shall  quote  a  few  figures  which  may  depict  the  situation  of  the 
Army  from  another  angle,  particularly  its  provision  with  fighting 
equipment.  At  present  the  productivity  of  our  plants  working  on 
munitions  has  been  reduced  to  such  an  extent,  that  now,  in  round 
numbers,  the  producton  of  the  chief  necessities  for  the  Army,  com- 
pared to  the  figures  for  the  period  from  October.  1916,  to  January. 
1917.  has  been  lowered  thus:    guns  60%,   shells  60%. 

I  quote  only  these  figures.  Consequently,  if  this  situation  con- 
tinues, our  Armies  will  find  themselves  in  the  very  same  condition  in 
which  they  were  in  the  beginning  of  the  spring  of  1915,  which  later. 
as  you  well  know,  was  responsible  for  the  retreat  of  our  Armies  from 
Poland,  from  Galicia,  and  from  the  Carpathians. 

I  call  your  attention  to  another  figure:  -At  present,  for  the  suc- 
cessful functioning  of  the  Army,  eyes  are  necessary.  By  eyes  I  mean 
fly-shuttles.  For  the  activities  of  the  artillery,  fly-shuttles  are  also 
necessary.  The  condition  of  our  fleet  is  such  that  neither  with,  the 
equipment  received  from  abroad  nor  with  the  output  of  our  own 
plants  can  we  make  up  for  the~loss  in  fly-shuttles.  Not  being  able 
to  fill  the  gap  in  gears,  we  are  unable  to  fill  the  gap  in  aviators,  for 
we  have  not  the  necessary  equipment.  At  present  the  output  of  our 
plants  working  on  aviation  supplies  has  been  reduced  80  per  cent. 
Thus,  if  the  most  decisive  measure  will  not  be  adopted  our  aero  fleet, 
that  has  done  so  much  for  victory,  will  perish. 

If  measures  conducive  to  the  purifying  of  the  Army's  spirit  and 
the  raising  of  its  fighting  capacity  are  adopted,  there  must  be  no 
difference  between  the  front  and  the  rear  with  regard  to  the  strict- 
ness of  regime  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  country. 

But  in  one  respect,  the  front,  which  is  facing  immediate  danger, 
must  have  some  privileges  over  the  rear.  If  there  should  be  a  food 
shortage,  the  rear  should  suffer,  and  not  the  front.  Proper  measures 
must  be  taken  without  any  delay  whatsoever. 

To  those  things  about  which  I  consider  myself  in  duty  bound  to 
report,  I  will  also  add  that  in  which  I  have  always  believed  heart  and 
soul  and  the  evidence  of  which  I  am  now  witnessing.  The  country 
wants  to  live,  and  like  an  evil  dream  is  passing  away  that  suicidal 
state  of  our  great,  independent  country,  a  state  created  by  the  irre- 
sponsible slogans  spread  among  the  most  ignorant  and  dark  masses. 

For  the  effective  realization  of  the  will  of  the  people,  the  imme- 
diate execution  of  the  measures  suggested  by  me  is  necessary.     T  do 


450  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


not  doubt  for  a  moment  that  these  measures  will  be  passed  without 
any  delay  whatsoever.  (Applause.)  But  it  is  not  to  be  admitted  that 
the  determination  to  carry  out  these  measures  should  only  be  mani- 
fested under  the  pressure  of  defeat  and  loss  of  territory. 

If  decisive  measures  for  the  improvement  of  discipline  at  the 
front  followed  as  a  result  of  the  devastation  of  Tarnopol  and  the 
loss  of  Galicia  and  Bucovina,  we  must  not  allow  that  order  in  the 
rear  should  be  a  result  of  the  loss  of  Riga,  and  that  order  on  the  rail- 
roads be  restored  at  the  price  of  surrendering  Moldavia  and  Bes- 
sarabia to  the  enemy. 

I  believe  in  the  genius  of  the  Russian  people.  I  believe  in  the 
intellect  of  the  Russian  people,  and  I  believe  in  the  salvation  of  the 
country. 

I  believe  in  the  bright  future  of  our  country  and  trust  that  the 
fighting  capacity  of  our  Army,  her  past  glory,  will  be  restored.  But  I 
declare  that  we  must  lose  no  time,  we  must  not  lose  a  single  moment; 
determination  and  a  firm,  inflexible  execution  of  the  proposed  mea- 
sures are  necessary."  (Applause.) 

The  next  speaker  was  General  Kaledine,  who  spoke  in  be- 
half of  the  Cossacks.  General  Kaledine  was  one  of  the  most 
impressive  figures  at  the  Conference. 

General  Kaledine's  Speech 

"Having  heard  the  report  of  the  Provisional  Government  regard- 
ing the  difficult  position  in  which  Russia  finds  herself,  the  Cossacks 
of  the  twelve  regions,  the  Don  Cossacks,  the  Cossacks  from  Kuban, 
Tersk,  Orenburg,  Yaitzk,  Astrakhan,  Siberia,  Amur,  Transbaikalia, 
Semiretchinsk,  Enissey,  and  Usuryisk  hail  the  decision  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government  to  liberate  itself  finally  in  matters  of  national 
ganizations,  which,  together  with  other  causes,  have  brought  the 
ganizations,  which  together  with  other  causes,  have  brought  the 
country  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 

The  Cossacks,  who  have  never  known  what  serfdom  means,  the 
Cossacks  who  have  been  free  and  independent  since  time  immemorial, 
who  have  always  enjoyed  a  large  degree  of  self-government,  who  have 
always  adhered  in  their  own  life  to  the  principles  of  equality  and 
fraternity,  are  not  intoxicated  by  the  new  freedom.  Having  received 
it  anew,  having  regained  the  freedom  which  the  Tzars  had  taken 
from  them,  the  Cossacks,  whose  strength  rests  in  their  common 
sense  and  in  their  sane  conception  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
statesmanship,  have  accepted  the  new  freedom  with  dignity  and  calm- 
ness, and  having  immediately  proceeded  to  put  it  into  practice  by 
creating,  in  the  first  days  of  the  Revolution,  military  committees 
elected  on  a  democratic  basis,  have  succeeded  in  coordinating  the 
principle    of   liberty   with   order." 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  451 

After  a  short  pause,  Kaledine  continued,  with  emphasis  on 
every  word : 

"The  Cossacks  are  proud  to  say  that  there  were  no  deserters  in 
their  ranks,  that  they  have  preserved  their  strong  organization  and 
with  the  aid  of  this  strong  and  free  organization  are  defending  and 
will  continue  to  defend  the  country  and  her  liberty.   (Applause.) 

Faithfully  serving  the  new  regime,  having  sealed  with  their  blood 
their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  patriotism,  and  having  always  treated 
with  contempt  the  slanderous  attacks  of  provocateurs,  who  constantly 
accuse  the  Cossacks  of  being  counter-revolutionary,  the  Cossacks 
pledge  themselves  at  this  moment  of  mortal  danger  to  the  country, 
when  many  military  units  have  disgraced  themselves  by  forgetting 
Russia,  not  to  leave  their  historic  course  of  serving  the  country  with 
arms  on  the  field  of  battle,  as  well  as  to  help  suppress  the  treachery 
at  home.  (Boisterous  applause.) 

At  the  same  time  the  Cossacks  wish  to  point  out  that  the  accusa- 
tion of  their  being  counter-revolutionary  was  thrust  at  them  right 
after  (Gen.  Kaledine  turns  to  the  Left  and  stares  fixedly  at  Tscheidze. 
Tseretelli  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Democracy.)  the  Cossack 
regiments,  while  saving  the  Revolutionary  Government,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  Socialist  Ministers  on  the  16th  of  July  came  out  as 
resolutely  as  ever  to  defend  the  country  from  anarchy  and  treachery 
with  their  arms.   (Applause  everywhere.) 

Understanding  revolutionary  spirit  not  in  the  sense  of  fraternizing 
with  the  enemy  troops,  not  in  the  sense  of  deserting  our  posts  of 
duty,  disobeying  orders  or  demanding  that  the  Government  do  the 
impossible,  not  in  the  sense  of  criminally  robbing  the  national  Treas- 
ury, not  in  the  sense  of  destroying  completely  the  personal  inviola- 
bility of  our  citizens  and  their  property,  or  in  rude  violation  of  the 
freedom  of  speech,  press  and  assemblage,  the  Cossacks  reject  all 
accusations  concerning  their  alleged  counter-revolutionary  spirit. 
The  Cossacks  know  no  cowards  or  traitors  in  their  ranks  and  are 
striving  to  safeguard  freedom  and  order.  Noting  with  deep  sorrow 
the  general  disruption  of  the  national  organism,  the  demoralization 
at  the  front  and  in  the  rear,  the  breakdown  of  discipline  among  the 
troops  and  the  absence  of  local  authority,  the  criminal  fanning  g>t 
class  hatred,  leniency  towards  usurpation  of  power  by  irresponsible 
organizations,  as  regards  both  the  Central  and  local  Government, 
noting  the  centrifugal  tendencies  of  various  groups  and  nationalities, 
the  threatening  proportions  which  the  decrease  in  the  output  of  our 
industries  is  assuming  and  the  disruption  in  the  domain  of  finance, 
industry  and  transportation,  the  Cossacks  appeal  to  all  the  pro- 
gressive forces  of  the  country  to  unite  in  their  labor  and  self-sacri- 
fice for  the  sake  of  saving  the  country  and  establishing  a  democratic 
republic." 


452  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

These  words  were  greeted  by  boisterous  applause  from  all 
factions  of  the  Conference.     Kaledine  continued : 

"It  is  our  profound  conviction  that  in  these  days,  when  the  gravest 
danger  is  menacing  the  very  existence  of  the  country,  everything 
must  be  sacrificed  to  the  cause  of  saving  the  Fatherland.  The 
Cossacks  believe  that  to  save  the  country  it  is  necessary,  above  all,  to 
bring  the  war  to  a  victorious  end  in  complete  harmony  with  the 
Allies.  (Boisterous  applause  from  the  Center  and  Right.  E.  C 
Breshko-Breshkovskaya  also  applauds.)  To  this  fundamental  pur- 
pose, the  entire  life  of  the  country  must  be  subordinated,  and  conse- 
quently all  the  activities  of  the  Provisional  Government.  Only  on 
this  condition  will  the  Government  receive  the  full  support  of  the 
Cossacks.  There  can  be  no  room  in  the  Government  for  those  who 
desire  Russia's  defeat.  (Thundering  applause  from  the  Right.  Hisses 
from  the  Left.  All  eyes  are  fixed  on  Chernov,  who  is  bending  over  his 
desk.) 

In  the  name  of  the  Cossacks  of  all  Russia,  I  suggest  the  following 
measures: 

(1)  The  Army  must  be  kept  out  of  politics.  All  meetings  and 
assemblies  with  their  party  antagonisms  must  be  absolutely  forbidden 
at  the  front. 

(2)  All  councils  and  committees  in  the  Army  must  be  abolished  at 
the  front  as  well  as  behind  the  lines,  except  those  of  the  regiments, 
companies,  divisions  and  other  military  units,  and  their  rights  and 
duties  must  be  strictly  limited  to  the  management  of  the  soldiers' 
economic  affairs. 

(3)  The  Declaration  of  Soldiers'  Rights  must  be  revised  and 
amplified  by  the  declaration  of  his  duties. 

(4)  The  discipline  in  the  Army  must  be  restored  and  strengthened 
by  the  most  decisive  measures. 

(5)  To  insure  the  fighting  capacity  of  the  Army,  the  front  and  the 
rear  must  be  recognized  as  one  whole,  and  all  measures  required 
for  strengthening  discipline  at  the  front  must  also  be  applied  to  the 
rear. 

(6)  The  disciplinary  rights  of  superior  officers  must  be  restored 
t©  them.  (Applause  from  the  Right.) 

(7)  The  Army  leaders  must  have  their  full  authority  restored. 

(8)  At  this  terrible  hour  of  great  reverses  at  the  front  and  com- 
plete disintegration  springing  from  political  and  economic  disruption, 
the  country  can  be  saved  from  final  ruin  only  by  placing  full  power  in 
the  hands  of  firm,  experienced  and  skilled  people  not  bound  by 
narrow  party  or  group  programs,  (Loud  applause  on  the  Right.)  not 
hampered  by  the  necessity  of  turning  back  after  every  step  in  order 
to  find  out  whether  the  various  committees  and  councils  approve  or 
disapprove  of  their  acts,   (Restlessness  on  the  Left.    Applause  on  the 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  453 

Right.)  and  who  fully  recognize  that  the  people  as  a  whole  and  not 
separate  parties  or  groups  are  the  source  of  sovereign  power  in  the 
State. 

(9)  The  Central  as  well  as  local  Government  must  be  undivided. 
A  stop  must  be  put  immediately  and  abruptly  to  the  usurpation  of 
power  by  the  central  and  local  committees  and  councils.  (Vigorous 
protests  on  the  Left.  Shouts:  "Down  with  him!"  "Counter-Revolu- 
tionist!" Enthusiastic  applause  from  the  Right.) 

(10)  Russia  must  be  united.  All  separatist  aspirations  must  be 
nipped  in  the  bud. 

Cll)  As  regards  the  country's  economic  life,  it  is  necessary  (a)  to 
observe  the  strictest  economy  in  all  departments  of  State  life,  carry- 
ing it  out  relentlessly,  without  deviation,  to  the  very  end;  to  imme- 
diately bring  into  conformity  with  one  another  the  prices  on  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  products,  fb)  to  at  once  regulate  wages  and 
profits,  (c)  to  immediately  take  up  the  matter  of  working  out  and 
putting  into  effect  a  law  regarding  compulsory  industrial  service,  (d) 
to  introduce  the  strictest  and  most  effective  measures  in  order  to  check 
whatever  tends  to  undermine  the  productivity  of  our  farming  in- 
dustries, which  are  suffering  acutely  from  wilful  actions  on  the  part 
of  individuals  and  various  committees  who  are  violating  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  land  ownership  and  rental,  as  well  as  those  regulating 
the  relations  between  landlords  and  tenants. 

In  conclusion,  I  must  speak  of  the  greatest  coming  event  in 
Russia's  national  life,  that  to  which  the  Russian  people  look  forward 
in  their  expectation  of  securing  a  stable  and  firm  foundation  for  their 
new  national  life, — I  mean  the  Constituent  Assembly.  We  demand 
that  during  the  preparations  for  the  elections,  as  well  as  during  the 
time  of  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  Provisional 
Government  take  all  measures  to  safeguard  lawful  and  fair  elections 
throughout  the  country. 

We  believe  that  the  Constituent  Assembly  should  be  convoked  in 
Moscow  because  of  the  city's  historic  importance  as  well  as  its  central 
location,  and  also  in  the  interests  of  the  work  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  which  must  be  carried  out  systematically  and  uninter- 
rupted!}'. 

Finally,  we  make  our  appeal  to  the  Provisional  Government  that 
in  the  bitter  struggle  for  existence  which  Russia  is  now  waging,  it 
should  utilize  all  the  Russian  people,  all  the  vital  forces  of  all  cl:  -  - 
in  Russia.  We  appeal  that  the  Provisional  Government,  itself,  should 
include  in  its  ranks,  in  this  hour  of  stress,  all'  the  prominent  leaders 
of  the  country,  all  that  our  Fatherland  can  give  of  her  energy,  knowl- 
edge, experience,  talent,  honesty,  love  and  devotion. 

The  time  for  words  has  passed.  The  patience  of  the  people  is 
being  exhausted.  In  order  to  save  the  country — it  is  necessary  to 
act." 


454  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

General  Kaledine  left  the  platform  in  the  midst  of  an  un- 
precedented commotion  in  the  hall.  The  Right  and  a  part  of 
the  Center  applauded  boisterously.  From  the  Left  came  shouts 
of  indignation  and  protest.  The  next  speaker,  the  Chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  N.  S.  Tscheidze.  began 
his  speech  by  answering  General  Kaledine. 

Tscheidze's  Speech 

"Despite  the  fact  that  the  necessity  for  the  elimination  of  demo- 
cratic organizations  has  just  now  been  declared,  I  must  start  my 
speech  by  referring  to  these  institutions. 

And  thus,  in  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  in  the  name  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Peasants'  Delegates,  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  United  Public  Organizations,  of  the  cooperative  organizations, 
of  the  presidents  of  the  food  supply  committees,  in  the  name  of  the 
7nembers  of  the  Government  Assembly,  of  the  representatives  of  the 
organizations  at  the  front,  of  the  Army,  and  the  soldiers'  section 
of  the  Peasants',  Soldiers'  and  Workmen's  Delegations,  in  the  name 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Pan-Russian  Union  of  Crippled 
Warriors,  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Union  of 
Crippled  Warriors,  of  the  representatives  of  the  All-Russian  Union  of 
Zemstvos  and  Municipalities,  of  the  Central  Union  of  the  employees 
of  governmental,  public,  and  private  institutions,  of  the  All- 
Russian  Railway  Constituent  Convention,  and  the  majority  of  the 
representatives  of  municipal  self-government,  I  have  the  honor  to 
make  the  following  statement: 

Russia  is  passing  through  days  of  grave,  almost  mortal  danger; 
the  troops  of  the  enemy  are  invading  the  country,  the  Army  is  re- 
treating, the  finances  are  exhausted,  the  railroads  are  out  of  order, 
and  industry  is  being  disrupted,  and  does  not  meet  the  demands  of 
the  Army  and  the  population.  Hunger  is  threatening  the  city.  At 
the  same  time,  the  disintegration  in  the  Army  and  the  anarchistic 
outbursts  in  the  country  show  that  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  masses 
is  threatening  to  assume  such  forms  as  will  be  detrimental  to  the 
very  existence  of  the  State  and  to  the  gains  of  the  Revolution. 

At  this  grave  time,  before  :he  whole  country,  the  Democracy  once 
more  dec4ares  its  firm  determination  not  to  stop  before  any  sacrifices 
for  the  salvation  of  the  country  and  the  Revolution. 

In  the  Councils  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  has  not  been  striving 
for  power,  has  not  been  seeking  a  monopoly  for  itself,  but  has  sup- 
ported any  power  capable  of  safeguarding  the  interests  of  the  country 
and  the  Revolution. 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscoiv  455 


In  the  chaos  of  destruction  it  was  striving  to  organize  the  masses 
of  the  people  for  the  purpose  of  building  up  a  government  and  solving 
the  economic  problems  of  the  nation.  It  has  always  placed  the 
interests  of  the  country  and  the  Revolution  above  the  interests  of 
separate  classes  and  groups.   (Applause.) 

Under  the  extraordinary  and  difficult  conditions  not  everything 
that  is  necessary  has  yet  been  done,  and  not  everything  is  done  as  it 
should  be.  Though,  in  the  phenomena,  the  decomposition  of  the 
Army  and  the  anarchistic  outbursts,  the  heritage  of  the  old  regime 
and  the  threatening  apparition  of  anarchy  are  still  apparent,  yet, 
looking  back  at  the  past  five  months,  we  may  safely  say  that  only  due 
to  the  revolutionary  organizations  has  the  creative  spirit  of  the  Revo- 
lution been  preserved;  that  is  saving  the  country  from  dissolution 
and  anarchy. 

Any  attempt  to  destroy  the  democratic  organizations,  to  under- 
mine their  significance,  to  form  a  gap  between  them  and  the  supreme 
authority  and  make  the  governmental  power  a  tool  in  the  hands  of 
the  privileged  and  propertied  classes  is  not  only  a  betrayal  of  the 
revolutionary  cause,  but  a  betrayal  of  the  country. 

By  demanding  from  those  in  power  a  more  decisive  and  consistent 
adoption  of  the  program  of  July  21,  the  Revolutionary  Democracy 
is  protecting  not  the  exclusive  interests  of  any  separate  classes  or 
groups  but  the  common  interests  of  the  country  and  the  Revolution. 
This  program  is  a  development  of  the  program  of  May  19,  on  the 
basis  of  which  the  coalition  was  formed. 

At  a  time  when  the  very  existence  of  the  Revolutionary  State  is 
being  threatened  by  the  enemies'  invasion,  the  Democracy  demands 
that  the  citizens  and  the  Government  concentrate  all  efforts  for  the 
organization  of  the  country's  defense. 

The  Government  must  remember  that  relying  only  on  the  active 
support  of  the  democratic  organizations  in  the  rear  and  at  the 
front,  it  could  achieve  the  enormous  task.  The  united  Revolutionary 
Democracy  recognizes  that  the  vital  interests  of  the  country  and 
the  Revolution  urgently  demand  the  immediate  application  of  a  num- 
ber of  reforms: 

1.  In  regard  to  the  food  supply  and  provisioning, — it  is  necesssary  to 
preserve  the  monopoly  over  bread  and  establish  fixed  prices  on  farm 
products.  On  the  other  hand,  a  complete  series  of  measures  is  neces- 
sary to  supply  the  rural  population  with  the  products  of  industry,  as 
far  as  it  is  possible  under  the  present  conditions.  The  fixing  of 
prices  on  the  essential  products  of  industry  and  the  regulation  of 
wages  are  also  necessary.  Success  in  carrying  through  the  measures 
concerning  the  food  supply  policy  and  in  supplying  the  people  with 
the  products  of  industry  is  impossible  without  the  most  active  partici- 
pation,   in    the    production,    as    well    as    in    the    distribution    of    farm 


456  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


products  and  manufactured  articles,  of  the  cooperative  organizations, 
under  the  general  management  of  governmental  and  food  supplying 
organizations.  Together  with  this,  we  must  utilize  the  private  com- 
mercial institutions  as  far  as  possible  and  expedient. 

2.  In  the  sphere  of  commerce  and  industry, — the  problem  of  the 
country's  defense  and  of  the  organization  of  supply  imperatively  de- 
mand the  regulation  of  the  transportation  system  and  increase  of  the 
productivity  of  industry.  The  increase  of  productivity  demands,  first 
of  all,  from  the  Government,  the  establishment  of  control  over  pro- 
duction and  active  interference  with  the  management  of  the  food 
supply  system,  not  hesitating  to  resort  to  Government  ownership 
and  monopolies.  In  so  far  as  the  decrease  in  productivity  can  be 
charged  to  the  consciousness  of  the  working  masses,  the  labor  or- 
ganizations will  with  still  greater  energy  continue  the  struggle  with 
this  phenomenon.  The  Government,  in  its  turn,  must  not  delay  the 
putting  through  of  the  program  of  stringent  measures  safeguarding 
labor,  which  will  be  conducive  to  the  increase  of  productivity.  To- 
gether with  this,  the  creation  of  a  chain  of  employment  bureaus  for 
the  distribution  and  assignment  of  the  labor  forces,  the  creation  of 
a  chain  of  courts  of  arbitration  and  the  safeguarding  of  the  right  to 
organize  for  the  workers  of  all  branches  of  labor  are  necessary.  In 
turn,  the  labor  organizations  must  actively  strive  to  increase  the 
productivity  of  labor,  in  the  interests  of  the  salvation  of  the  country 
and  of  the  Revolution.  The  regulation  of  production  and  supply  and 
the  establishment  of  fixed  prices  must  be  followed  by  a  regulation  of 
the.  mutual  relations  between  capital  and  labor,  and  in  case  of  neces- 
sity, by  the  introduction  of  compulsory  labor  for  all  classes  of  the 
population. 

3.  In  the  financial  sphere,  together  with  the  passing  of  stricter 
laws  regarding  income  taxes,  taxes  on  war  profits  and  also  amending 
the  inheritance  tax,  it  is  necessary  to  tax  increased  values  and 
articles  of  luxury,  to  introduce  such  a  high  temporary  income  tax 
that  the  taxation  of  the  propertied  classes  together  with  the  loan  will 
prove  sufficient  for  covering  the  deficit  of  the  State  Treasury.  It  is 
necessary  to  increase  the  existing  taxation  on  the  articles  of  every- 
day necessity,  and  to  introduce  new  taxes.  With  regard  to  loans, 
decisive  measures  must  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  them 
compulsory.  It  is  necessary  to  pass  a  number  of  measures  to  increase 
the  funds  of  the  Government  Bank,  which  must  be  reorganized. 
Private  credit  institutions  must  be  subject  to  Government  control. 
On  its  part,  the  united  Democracy  thinks  it  necessary  to  exert  all 
efforts  in  the  support  of  the  financial  measures  of  the  Government, 
in  the  establishment  of  a  method  for  the  successful  collection  of 
taxes  and  putting  through  the  Liberty  Loan. 

4.  In   the   domain   of  agrarian   reform,   an   energetic,   rational    and 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  457 


systematic  coordination  is  necessary.  It  is  necessary  to  repudiate 
all  seizures  of  land  by  individuals  as  well  as  by  groups  and  societies. 
The  regulation  of  agricultural  relations  must  be  left  to  the  land 
committees.  The  immediate  enactment  of  laws  and  instructions 
defining  the  rights,  obligations  and  the  form  of  the  land  committees 
is  also  of  importance. 

5.  For  the  organization  of  the  Army,  the  following  measures  must 
be  passed.  It  is  necessary  to  separate  the  rights  and  duties  of  the 
commanding  staff  from  those  of  the  commissaries  and  the  Army 
organizations.  Complete  independence  must  be  granted  to  the  com- 
manding staff  in  the  field  of  military  operations,  also  the  deciding 
power  in  the  sphere  of  military  preparations.  The  commissaries 
must  be  the  promoters  of  the  revolutionary  policy  of  the  Provisional 
Government.  Their  activities  must  be  placed  in  close  connection  with 
the  Army  organizations.  The  Army  committees  must  receive  legal 
confirmation  of  their  rights.  Extraordinary  measures  of  revolution- 
ary action  must  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  commissaries;  the 
work  in  the  rear,  the  supplying  of  the  needs  of  the  soldiers  must  be 
rendered  effective;  the  Government  and  society  must  make  it  their 
duty  to  render  help  to  the  maimed  warriors. 

6.  In  the  sphere  of  local  autonomy  and  government,  the  most 
rapid  organization  in  the  interests  of  strengthening  the  revolutionary 
order  is  imperative.  The  organs  of  local  administration  must  fulfill 
the  functions  of  the  State  Government.  Intensive  work  is  required, 
and  also  the  coordination  of  the  activities  of  the  Municipalities  and 
Zemstvos  with  their  militia.  The  commissaries  are  the  organs  of 
administrative  government  for  the  time  of  the  Revolution  only. 
From  the  moment  of  election  of  the  members  of  local  administrations, 
the  executive  committees  and  public  organizations  lose  their  authority. 

7.  On  the  national  question,  the  Provisional  Government  must 
issue  a  declaration  recognizing  the  full  right  to  self-definition  for  all 
nationalities,  to  be  confirmed  by  the  popular  Constituent  Assembly. 
We  must  issue  a  decree  granting  equal  rights  to  the  non-Russian 
nationalities  in  the  use  of  their  own  languages  and  extend  civil  and 
political  rights  to  schools,  to  the  courts,  etc.  We  must  form  a  council 
to  deal  with  national  problems,  in  which  the  representatives  of  all  the 
nationalities  of  Russia  will  participate." 

The  speaker  ended  his  statement  with  an  appeal  for  the 
support  of  the  Provisional  Government,  demanding  that  it  be 
given  full  power: 

"The  self-seeking  of  irresponsible  and  selfish  groups  must  be 
sacrificed  to  the  interests  of  Russia  as  a  whole.  Suppressing  every 
manifestation  of  anarchy,  the  revolutionary  authorities  must  relent- 
lessly nip  in  the  bud  all  attempts  of  counter-revolutionary  con- 
spirators to  exploit  the  Fatherland  for  their  criminal  purposes. 


458  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Let  the  masses  see  that  everything  necessary  is  done  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  country.  Let  them  know  that  the  revolutionary  authorities 
will  protect  the  revolutionary  gains  of  the  people  from  any  encroach- 
ment. Such  a  power  will  have  the  undivided  support  of  the  broad 
masses  of  the  people.  Such  a  power  will  not  be  frightened,  either  by 
anarchistic   revolts  or  by   counter-revolutionary   conspirators. 

The  special  measures,  to  which  the  Government  will  find  it 
necessary  to  resort  in  the  interests  of  establishing  revolutionary 
order,  will  have  the  confidence  of  the  people,  for  they  will  see  in  them 
not  the  manifestation  of  wilfulness,  not  the  policy  of  revenge,  not 
cowardly  concessions  to  the  aims  of  any  group,  but  necessity  dictated 
by  the  vital  interests  of  the  country  and  the  Revolution.  Such  a 
power  will  be  able  to  cope  with  the  difficult  and  responsible  problems 
of  the  country's  defense,  to  safeguard  the  conquests  of  the  Revolution 
up  to  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  which  will  sanc- 
tion the  adoption  of  a  republican  form  of  government,  which,  in  fact, 
has  already  been  accepted  by  the  people."  (Thundering  applause.) 


AFTER  Tscheidze,  the  Delegates,  Martiushin,  Krondratiev 
and  Ponomarev  spoke  in  the  name  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants' 
Delegates  and  the  All-Russian  Peasants'  Union.  They  ex- 
pressed their  solidarity  with  Tscheidze.  A  powerful  speech 
was  delivered  by  the  former  Secretary  of  War  in  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  A.  I.  Guchkov. 

Guchkov's  Speech 

"Soon  a  half  year  will  have  elapsed  since  the  coup  d'etat  which 
completed  the  process  of  demolishing  the  old  historic  government, 
a  process  started  long  ago.  This  coup  d'etat  was  not  the  secret  work 
of  conspirators.  From  the  very  beginning  it  assumed  the  form  of  a 
vast  national  movement  which  had  taken  hold  of  the  various  strata 
of  society,  the  different  political  currents.  Think  of  the  verdict 
which  has  been  unanimously  returned  by  the  Russian  people  through 
the  Imperial  Duma  in  regard  to  the  old  Government.  The  incompe- 
tence in  this  war  and  the  beggarly  equipment  of  the  Army  have 
prolonged  the  war  and  are  responsible  for  innumerable  sacrifices. 
Under  the  influence  of  some  direct  force  outside  of  and  above  the 
Government,  our  relations  with  the  Allies  were  becoming  strained. 
Industry  and  commerce  were  rapidly  disintegrating  and  the  Govern- 
ment had  neither  the  constructive  ability  nor  the  power  to  check 
this  process  of  disintegration.  Dissatisfaction  was  spreading  in  the 
various  social  spheres  and  among  the  masses. 

The   realization   that   the   main   cause   of   all   the   disruption   of   the 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  459 


country's  life  lay  in  the  Government,  which  was  under  the  influence 
of  directly  responsible  elements,  was  very  rapidly  taking  shape.  The 
day  of  judgment  was  approaching,  and  it  finally  did  come.  The  crea- 
tive powers  of  the  Russian  people,  freed  of  the  old  tyranny,  seemed 
to  be  in  a  condition  to  cope  with  the  difficulty  which  was  beyond  the 
power  of  the  old  autocratic  Russia,  was  going  to  be  solved  easily 
by  free  Russia.  The  war  was  going  to  be  brought  to  a  successful 
issue  and  Russia,  in  the  role  of  victor,  in  accord  with  her  Allies, 
would  magnanimously  reject  all  territorial  annexations,  would  dictate 
such  terms  of  peace  as  would  safeguard  her  economic  development 
and  protect  her  from  German  exploitation.  The  attention  of  the 
Government  was  going  to  be  turned  to  the  interests  of  the  masses 
that  had  been  disinherited  under  the  old  regime.  New  social  legisla- 
tion was  going  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  labor  and  radical  land 
reforms  were  going  to  create  that  class  of  well-to-do  peasantry  which 
would  be  the  country's  strongest  bulwark. 

Now  gentlemen,  why  have  you  failed  to  realize  all  this?  Why  were 
our  hopes  shattered,  why  were  we  disappointed?  Why  do  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Government  come  to  us,  terror-stricken,  and  in 
despair,  why  do  their  anxiety  and  fright  find  a  response  in  our  souls? 

Gentlemen,  we  must  give  credit  to  the  political  wisdom  and  the 
sense  of  duty  of  those  who  were  not  afraid  to  come  here  in  this 
fatal  hour  in  order  to  tell  the  country  publicly  about  the  true  state 
of  affairs  and  to  hear  the  opinion  of  the  people.  How  unusual  this 
has  become  during  the  last  six  months!  This  voice  must  speak 
bravely  and  truthfully  and  must  help  the  people  realize  the  situation 
and  the  Government  to  disentangle  this  complicated  network  of 
phenomena  which  constitutes  our  present  political  life.  Gentlemen, 
we  fought  poorly,  now  we  are  fighting  still  worse,  and  at  times  we  do 
not  fight  at  all.  Are  we  going  to  be  defeated?  I  do  not  know,  but 
we  are  headed  in  that  direction.  The  grave  moral  disease  which  has 
seized  the  country  is  continually  spreading.  Our  economic  life  is 
ruined  beyond  repair.  Entire  branches  of  industry  are  rapidly  dying 
out,  others  are  hardly  able  to  exist.  The  equipping  of  the  Army  is 
daily  becoming  more  and  more  difficult.  Supplying  the  country  with 
the  prime  necessaries  of  life  is  something  impossible  of  realization, 
while  the  decrease  in  the  country's  productivity  is  assuming  terrible 
proportions.  Financial  bankrupty  is  already  an  established  fact 
and  the  State  Treasury  depends  entirely  upon  the  speed  with  which 
paper  money  can  be  printed. 

This  is  a  true  picture  of  the  present  situation  in  Russia,  a  picture 
which  we  can  portray  with  the  aid  of  those  data  scattered  through 
the  various  reports  of  the  members  of  the  Government.  This  picture 
has  one  more  characteristic  feature, — that  is  its  resemblance  to  the 
pre-revolutionary    times.      In    the    center    of    this    chaos    and    disaster 


460  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


the  Russian  Government  stands  out  as  the  main  cause;  and  all  the 
means  for  remedying  these  social  evils  which  in  their  ensemble  form 
that  deadly  disease  which  is  leading  our  State  to  ruin,  all  these  lead 
us  to  one  problem,  the  problem  of  placing  our  central  Government 
on  a  sound  basis.  This  problem  is  constantly  before  us.  Gentlemen, 
the  Government's  chief  ailment  is  the  fact  that  it  has  no  power. 
This  Government,  in  spite  of  all  its  pompous  attributes  of  power, 
with  its  gestures,  terminology  and  intonation  for  which  we  have 
already  acquired  distaste,  is  but  the  shadow  of  a  government.  (Ap- 
plause.) This  contrast  between  the  imperative  necessity  for  the 
creation  of  a  real  form  of  truly  statesmanlike  Government  and  the 
convulsive  quest  and  passionate  longing  for  such  Government  is  all 
the  more  tragic. 

Gentlemen,  why  this  fatal  constantly  recurring  failure?  Can  we 
hope  that  the  problem  of  government  will  be  solved  along  the  same 
lines  on  which  our  investigations  have  been  directed  heretofore?  I 
shall  not  speak  about  the  fundamental  mistake  committed  by  the 
Russian  people  or,  to  be  more  exact,  by  its  leading  spheres.  I  shall 
not  tell  about  the  crisis  which  finally  produced  the  coup  d'etat.  I 
admit  the  historic  guilt  of  these  leading  spheres  when  it  became 
clear  that  no  cooperation  with  the  old  regime  was  possible;  when' 
the  country's  salvation  depended  upon  the  removal  of  that  power, 
those  leading  spheres  did  not  take  it  upon  themselves  to  guide  the 
Revolution,  but  joined  the  ranks  of  the  revolutionists  on  an  equal 
basis  with  the  other  elements.  (Shouts:  "Correct!")  This  historic 
blunder  predetermined  the  very  character  of  the  Revolution  and 
all  subsequent  events.  The  coup  d'etat,  under  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  occurred,  rushed  forward  to  the  front  rank  the 
power  of  the  so-called  revolutionary  democracy.  This  term  did 
not,  by  far,  cover  all  the  democratic  elements,  so  numerous  in  our 
truly  democratic  people.  This  revolutionary  democracy  which  was 
created  first  in  Petrograd  and  then  throughout  the  country  is  at 
present  the  actual  master  of  the  situation  and  has  of  late  been  vested 
with  governmental  power.  This  power  has  in  this  way  been  limited 
to  the  appointment  and  change  of  cabinets.  This  was  a  continual 
and  very  despotic  control  over  the  official  Provisional  Government. 

Think  of  the  famous  ultimatum  and  the  vigorous  protest  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma,  my  resignation  as  a  last  attempt 
at  protest  against  the  dangerous  situation  when  all  the  power  lies 
in  the  hands  of  irresponsible  individuals  and  all  the  responsible 
ones  are  left  powerless.  This  feature  of  our  political  system  has 
remained  and  in  it  lies  the  main  cause  of  our  Government's  weakness 
and  the  hopelessness  of  any  attempt  to  create  a  strong  Government; 
the    sacred    cause   of  justice    for   all   is   part    of   the    very   nature   of   a 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  461 


Democracy."  (The  Chairman:  "Your  time  is  up."  Shouts  from  the 
Right:  "Continue!  Continue!"  Guchkov  left  the  platform  without  fin- 
ishing  his  speech.) 


AT  the  session  of  August  27th   I.  G.   Tseretelli   debated 
with  V.  A.  Maklakov,  emphasizing  the  importance  of 
L    the  organizations  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy. 
Tseretelli's  Speech 

"At  the  time  when  nobody  was  at  the  helm  of  State,  and  the 
masses  of  the  people,  left  to  themselves  under  the  tempestuous 
fire  of  the  Revolution,  might  have  tumbled  down  to  anarchy  leading  to 
the  destruction  of  the  State,  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates  were  the  sole  supporters  of  organization.  All  those  who 
at  the  present  moment  want  to  paralyze  these  basic,  vital  organs  with 
the  aid  of  which  the  Russian  people  and  the  peoples  inhabiting  Russia 
are  still  fighting,  all  those  who  want  to  save  the  State  by  any  means 
which  would  exclude  the  people  from  active  participation,  commit 
a  crime  against  the  State. 

General  Kornilov  has  drawn  a  terrible  picture  for  you.  Terrible 
it  is  that  we  pay  dearly  for  every  lesson  of  history  and  that  for 
the  restoration  of  order,  of  railroad  communication,  we  must  lose  a 
few  very  important  strategic  points.  Yes,  this  is  terrible,  but,  if  the 
people  will  not  retreat  before  the  deadly  blows  of  the  enemy,  there 
is  still  hope  that  the  lost  territories  will  be  recaptured.  However, 
there  is  one  price  that  cannot  buy  interior  order,  and  that  is  loss  of 
faith  in  the  people,  in  the  people's  power,  in  the  forces  of  democracy. 
If  such  an  order  should  be  established,  it  would  be  an  order 
unfit  for  a  living  organization.  It  would  mean  the  funeral  of  free 
Russia.  The  task  of  the  Government  is  to  establish  order  and  or- 
ganize the  defense  of  the  country  in  such  a  manner  that  all  the 
forces  of  the  people  may  be  brought  into  play,  and  the  entire  cap- 
ital of  the  people's  organizations  used  for  the  cause  of  the  country's 
salvation. 

We  speak  of  sacrifices;  the  Democracy  does  everything  for  the 
salvation  of  the  country.  Tell  me,  was  that  limitation  of  power,  the 
transfer  of  all  the  governmental  functions,  as  a  whole,  to  the  Coali- 
tion Government  by  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  at  the  time  of 
severe  trials — was  that  resorting  to  force?  We  realize  that  the 
time  has  come  when  the  governmental  power  must  be  centralized  in 
the  hands  of  the  Coalition  Government.  If  such  a  thought,  which 
can  only  be  the  product  of  a  madman's  mind  or  of  a  small,  iso- 
lated group  of  insane  individuals,  that  the  time  has  come  when 
order  can  be  restored  in  the  country  by  suppressing  all  the  demo- 
cratic   organizations    created    by    the    activities    of    the    people    them- 


462  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

selves, — if  such  a  thought  were  translated  into  action,  who  then 
would  stand  up  in  defense  of  freedom  and  the  very  existence  of  the 
country?  (Applause.)  Only  the  power  of  the  people, — the  people's 
organizations,  part  and  parcel  of  the  people, — can  show  the  true  path; 
and  in  order  to  cure  the  ulcers  and  wounds  of  the  country  it  is 
necessary  to  stimulate  the  activities  of  the  people  themselves. 

It  has  been  said  here  that  there  is  only  one  basic  question  and 
when  that  is  solved  joint  work  will  be  possible.  It  is  the  question 
concerning  our  attitude  to  the  war,  the  question  of  the  defense  of  the 
Fatherland,  the  question  of  patriotism.  But  there  are  two  kinds  of 
patriotism.  One — formulated  by  Wilhelm,  who  said  that  he  loves  his 
Fatherland  to  such  an  extent  that  he  would  want  all  to  fear  it  as  the 
Hun  and  Atilla  were  feared.  This  is  a  specific  kind  of  patriotism;  it 
manifests  itself  in  war.  But  there  is  another  kind  of  patriotism 
embodied  in  the  Revolution.  We  love  our  country  and  we  will  de- 
fend her  to  the  last  drop  of  blood  from  any  violence  and  from  any 
subjection.  Our  great  pride,  our  greatest  ideal  is  to  see  our  country 
defending  herself  and  standing  up  for  her  rights,  and  holding  up  to 
the  world  the  light  of  freedom,  the  torch  of  right  and  justice  to  all 
nationalities.    (Applause.) 

That  is  what  we  understand  when  speaking  of  the  struggle  for  a 
general  peace.  Only  the  Revolution  can  save  the  country.  We  want 
all  the  living  and  the  able  to  fight  for  the  future.  All  the  living 
forces  of  the  country  should  unite  on  this  platform.  Maklakov  says: 
'Do  not  separate  the  country  from  the  Revolution  or  else  we  will 
choose  the  country.'  Don't  you  understand  that  he  who  sepa- 
rates the  country  from  the  Revolution  takes  out  the  very  soul  fi;om 
the  living  country?  Only  the  Revolution  can  save  the  country. 
There  is  only  one  way  left  and  that  is  democratic  organization,  the 
unification  of  the  forces  of  the  Revolution  for  the  sake  of  the  com- 
mon interests.  It  is  the  task  of  the  Government  to  learn  the  will  of 
the  common  people  which  can  only  be  realized  through  the  efforts  of 
the  people.  The  democratic  program  and  the  program  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  country  are  at  present  synonymous;  one  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  other.  (Boisterous  applause  from  the  Left.) 

Are  the  propertied  classes  ready  for  sacrifice?  Let  the  Govern- 
ment demand  whatever  is  necessary  for  the  cause  of  the  salvation  of 
the  country,  and  we  will  closely  unite  and  support  this  democratic 
power,  and  together  with  it,  we  will  exert  all  our  efforts  for  the 
salvation  of  the  country.  But  now  is  not  the  time  to  protect  any 
interests  that  are  not  in  complete  harmony  with  the  interests  of  all 
the  people. 

I  have  heard  shouts  that  indicate  differences  of  opinion.  There 
was  applause  at  times  on  one  side,  and  at  times  on  the  other.  I 
declare:   'Long  live   the   honest,   real    democratic    coalition    that    does 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  46.. 


not  stop  before  any  sacrifice!'  I  know  that  here  (Pointing  to  the 
Left.)  there  will  be  applause;  but  will  there  be  any  there?  (Pointing 
to  the  Right.)    (Thundering  applause  from  the  entire  hall.) 

Long  live  the  democratic  coalition  of  the  Revolutionary  Govern- 
ment!" (Boisterous  applause,  culminating  in  an  ovation  for  Tsere- 
telli  and  the   Provisional  Government.) 

I.  G.  Tseretelli  was  answered,  in  behalf  of  the  industrial 
class,  by  A.  A.  Boublikov,  former  Commissaire  of  the  Duma, 
whose  speech  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Conference  and 
on  the  country. 

Boublikov's  Speech 

"I  am  taking  the  floor  to  answer  the  question  put  point  blank  to 
the  trade-industrial  class.  I  refer  to  the  question  of  sacrifices,  the 
question  put  by  citizen  Tseretelli,  the  noble  leader  of  the  Russian 
Democracy. 

Our  industrial  life,  our  finances  will  be  saved  by  a  carefully  elab- 
orated financial  policy  based  on  a  knowledge  of  the  country's  needs, 
but  in  order  to  place  our  finances  on  a  sound  basis  it  is  necessary  to 
know  the  financial   situation  in  which   our  country  finds  itself. 

Russia's  entire  industry  and  the  industries  operating  on  a  bond 
basis  represent  five  billion  rubles.  At  the  present  disgraceful  rate 
of  exchange,  this  amounts  to  one  billion  dollars;  consequently,  Rus- 
sia's entire  industry  can  easily  be  bought  up  by  a  single  American 
billionaire.  With  all  the  dividends  issued  in  1915  amounting  to  less 
than  half  a  billion  rubles,  what  sacrifice  can  save  Russia,  whose  deficit 
will  inevitably  reach  the  60  billion  dollar  mark  on  the  1st  of  Januarv. 
1918?  What  sacrifice  of  this  poorly  developed  industry,  left  us  a 
heritage    by   the   old   regime,   can   save    the   situation? 

The  situation  can  be  saved  only  by  the  greatest  possible  creative 
effort  of  the  industrial  and  commercial  spheres. 

And  the  trade-industrial  class  is  turning  to  labor  for  wisdom,  the 
source  from  which  you  yourself  derive  your  wisdom,  Count.  They 
bear  in  mind  the  German  rule:  during  war  organization  is  necessary, 
and  not  improvisation.  And  we  in  time  of  war  coupled  with  Revolu- 
tion have  undertaken  to  suddenly  abolish  the  trade-industrial  class. 
We  are  accused  of  desertion,  but  who  made  it  absolutely  impossible 
for  us  to  aid  the  Fatherland?  Did  we  leave  the  organizations  of 
our  own  accord,  did  we  refuse  to  do  the  work?  We  were  forced  out 
of  the  ranks.  (Applause.) 

However,  my  words  are  not  prompted  by  the  spirit  of  offense, 
but  by  deep  sorrow  that  the  Fatherland,  at  the  moment  when  the 
greatest  constructive  efforts  were  required,  was  under  the  unfoi  • 
tunate    illusion    that    this    could    be    realized    easily    and    rapidly,    by 


464  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

putting  out  of  the  game,  one  of  the  greatest  forces  in  the  country,  a 
force  which  has  already,  long  ago,  manifested  its  ability  to  do  con- 
structive work. 

And  now,  when,  on  the  third  day  of  the  session,  we  have  heard  the 
long  awaited  words,  when  for  the  first  time  a  brotherly  hand  has 
been  extended,  this  hand, — I  declare  in  the  name  of  the  trade-indus- 
trial class, — will  not  remain  unclasped. 

You  have  committed  a  great  error,  you  have  applauded  the  words 
of  your  fellow-citizens  to  the  effect  that  the  commercial  and  indus- 
trial classes  are  the  enemies  of  the  country.  We  wait  and  trust  that 
these  sentiments  will  become  relics  of  the  past,  that  these  words 
will  become  obsolete,  and  that,  in  offering  us  a  coalition,  you  will 
offer  it  not  only  honestly,  as  we  have  offered  it,  but  that  you  will  also 
treat  us  respectfully.    (Applause.) 

And  then  the  industrial  and  commercial  classes  will  find  the 
greatest  happiness  in  union  with  you,  and  side  by  side  with  you  will 
stand  in  the  ranks  of  those  working  for  a  new  life  for  happy  Russia, 
the  life  for  which  it  thirsted  for  so  many  years,  and  in  the  creation 
of  which  we  participated,  through  our  representatives.  The  trade- 
industrial  class  will  use  those  creative  forces  to  make  entire  Russia 
prosperous  and  enable  it  to  reward  its  employees  liberally,  as  the 
rich  and  powerful  employers  do  in  foreign  countries,  instead  of  com- 
pelling them  to  toil  for  a  pittance  when  the  industry  itself  is  gasping 
for  breath.    (Shouts:  "Bravo!"  Applause.) 

And  we  offer  you  all  our  knowledge,  our  experience,  in  order  to 
avoid  upheavals  and  in  order  to  perform  all  this  creative  work  in 
the  shortest  period  of  time  and  with  the  greatest  benefit,  not  for  us, 
but  for  our  dearly  beloved  Fatherland."  (Unanimous  applause.  Boubli- 
kov  and  Tseretelli  shake  hands;  boisterous  ovation.) 


AT  the  session  of  August  28th,  most  outstanding  were 
the  speeches  of  the  veterans  of  the  Russian  Revolution. 
E.  C.  Breshko-Breshkovskaya,  Peter  Kropotkin  and 
George  Plekhanov.  The  audience  stood  up  as  one  man  when 
A.  F.  Kerensky  spoke  their  names. 

Breshko-Breshkovskaya's  Speech 
"I  thank  you,  citizens,  for  the  honor  which  you  have  just  bestowed 
upon  me.  Allow  we  to  say  a  few  words  regarding  my  views  on  the 
present  situation.  I  have  listened  to  all  the  speeches  that  have  been 
made  during  the  last  two  days  and  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  this  great  gathering  fully  expresses  the  views  held  by  entire 
Russia.  And  I  must  tell  you  that  the  population  of  the  entire  Russian 
State  has  passed  the  test. 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscoiv  465 


Despite  my  deafness,  I  am  sure  that  nothing  was  said  or  printed 
in  the  newspapers  that  would  testify  to  any  contradictions  to  be 
found  in  the  speeches  delivered  here.  It  was  unanimously  admitted 
that  we  have  a  country  and  that  the  country  is  worthy  of  being 
defended  with  all  our  might.  (Loud  applause;  shouts:  "Correct!") 

I  have  lived  long;  I  have  experienced  many  historic  events;  I  have 
thought  over  and  experienced  many  a  thing.  I  know  that  words  and 
promises  sometimes  hang  in  mid-air  for  a  long  while,  and  therefore 
I  consider  that  it  is  our  duty  to  start  the  work  of  carrying  out  all 
that  we  have  spoken  about  immediately  after  the  Conference  is  over. 

Our  Army  must  receive  its  leaders  in  the  persons  of  those  who 
have  been  present  here,  for  the  main  trouble  lies  not  so  much  with 
the  Army  at  the  front  as  with  the  reserves.  Our  reserves  have  re- 
mained without  work  for  three  years  and  they  are  degenerating 
because  of  this  idleness.  Those  people  who  have  already  been  taught 
through  experience,  who  have  already  been  there  in  Petrograd  and 
participated  in  the  various  councils  and  who  know  what  is  going 
on  in  the  Army,  they  are  the  ones  who  must  immediately  go  to  the 
reserves  and  organize  our  garrisons.  Nothing  can  be  accomplished 
before  this  is  done. 

In  the  rear  there  are  no  teachers,  no  friends,  no  instructors,  and 
instead  of  wasting  so  much  time  in  Moscow  and  Petrograd,  it  is 
better  to  go  to  the  reserves  and  prepare  the  Army  for  the  great  cause. 

Citizens!  Workers!  Do  not  think  that  your  duty  is  done  if  you 
merely  speak:  hard  work  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  and  the  Army 
is  still  more  essential.  All  Russia  to  a  man  must  now  get  busy 
working  on  army  supplies.  We  have  twenty  million  young,  healthy 
soldiers;  they  must  be  fed,  shod,  clothed,  equipped  with  ammunition. 
Entire  Russia,  women  included,  are  working,  and  therefore  you,  also, 
comrades,  workers,  must  remember  that  your  labor  is  needed  just 
as  much  as  that  of  the  Army  to  save  the  Republic.  (Applause.) 

Citizens  of  the  bourgeois  class, — you  who  are  endowed  with  in- 
telligence, abilities, — come  you  also  to  the  rescue  of  Russia!  Where 
are  you,  where  is  your  knowledge,  where  is  your  devotion?  Where 
is  your  work  for  your  country's  salvation?  So  far,  n.o  one  has  felt  it! 
You  realize  that  the  people  need  enlightenment:  why,  therefore,  do 
you  withhold  it?  Who  is  working  to  that  end,  who  is  agitating  among 
the  unenlightened  population?  I  do  not  see,  I  do  not  hear  anything 
of  the  sort.  The  people  remain  friendless,  without  teachers,  without 
leaders,  even  as  they  were  before. 

This  is  a  grave  blunder.  Under  the  Tzar's  regime  we  used  to  say 
that  the  Russian  people  are  a  great  people,  a  capable,  devoted  people, 
but  the  Tzars  are  hindering  their  progress.  Citizens,  now  nobody 
and  nothing  will  check  the  progress  of  the  glorious  Russian  people. 
(Loud  applause.) 


466  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


As  regards  our  capitalists,  great  and  small,  I  must  tell  you  that 
upon  them  rests  a  great,  bloody  sin.  I  am  impartial, — you  know  the 
class  of  people  I  come  from.  I  have  many  friends  among  the  bour- 
geois class,  but  I  repeat  that  our  enemy  at  home  is  just  this  merchant 
and  capitalist  class.  They  actually  deserve  that  the  Government  hold 
them  to  account  for  their  actions.  I  would  urge  the  Government  to 
send  as  many  teachers  to  the  people  as  possible.  This  must  be  done 
or  else  we  shall  remain  in  darkness,  a  condition  which  gives  rise  to 
such  occurrences  as  we  are  at  present  living  through,  occurrences 
that  constitute  counter-revolution. 

Tn  Petrograd  and  Moscow  meetings  are  held  daily  while  in  the 
villages  there  are  none.  The  men  teachers  have  been  called  to  the 
front  and  the  women  teachers  are  mostly  taken  from  the  ranks  of 
insufficiently  educated  and  the  100  millions  who  form  the  very 
foundation  of  Russia  remain  illiterate.  This  is  a  sin  that  weighs  on 
the  conscience  of  the  bourgeois  class.  You  have  the  means,  the 
literature,  the  writers,  and  it  is  up  to  you  to  take  up  this  matter. 
If  you  do  not  attend  to  this,  upon  you  will  rest  the  guilt,  you  will 
have  to  render  account  to  Russia. 

Citizens,  my  soul  is  torn  asunder.  On  the  one  hand,  I  heartily 
rejoice  seeing  the  unanimity  which  is  being  achieved  on  the  question 
regarding  Russia  and  her  welfare;  on  the  other  hand,  I  am  seized 
with  anxiety  even  as  I  was  on  the  16th  of  March  when,  sitting  in 
Minusinsk.  I  received  a  telegram  informing  me  that  the  Revolution 
had  been  accomplished,  that  the  people  were  free,  and  that  I  might 
return.  I  was  extremely  happy  and  yet  my  heart  ached  with  anxiety. 
I  wondered  how  we  would  carry  through  this  Revolution. 

I  repeat,  citizens,  beginning  with  to-morrow  we  must  see  all  the 
fine  words  that  were  spoken  here  carried  into  practice."  (Loud  ap- 
plause; all  members  of  the  Conference,  among  them  the  Ministers, 
rise  and  give  "Grandmother"  an  ovation.) 

Peter  Kropotkin's  Speech 

"Allow  me  also  to  add  my  voice  to  those  voices  which  have 
called  the  whole  Russian  people  to  break  once  and  forever  with 
Zimmerwaldism  and  to  rise  together,  closely  united,  in  defense  of 
the  Fatherland  and  the  Revolution.  (Applause.)  In  my  opinion,  the 
Fatherland  and  the  Revolution  are  indivisible.  The  Fatherland  made 
the  Revolution  and  it  must  carry  the  latter  to  the  end.  Citizens,  we 
are  in  a  protracted  war,  the  most  terrible  months  of  which  are  the 
last  months.  Why,  during  these  last  months,  has  not  the  question 
been  decided  as  to  who  shall  conquer  and  who  shall  be  defeated? 
If  the  Germans  should  be  victorious,  the  consequences  would  be  so 
dreadful  for  us  that  it  is  simply  painful  to  speak  of  or  prophesy  such 
things." 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  467 

Kropotkin  spoke  of  the  territorial  loss  and  indemnity  in  the 
event  of  German  victory  and  continued : 

"But  there  is  something  even  worse  than  that.  There  is  the 
psychology  of  a  vanquished  country.  (Voices:  "Right!  Correct!") 
The  psychology  of  a  defeated  country  I  learned  by  living  in  France. 
I  am  not  a  Frenchman,  but  I  became  intimate  with  them  and  my 
heart  pained  when  I  saw  how  France  humiliated  herself  before 
Alexander  and  Nicholas,  the  French  Republic  degraded  itself  before 
a  General  Boulanger,  because  she  felt  herself  so  badly  defeated  that 
she  resorted  to  any  means  to  liberate  herself  from  this  defeat.  Is  it 
possible  that  we  also  shall  have  to  live  through  this?  Never!  (Ap- 
plause of  the  whole  assembly.) 

Comrades,  Soldiers,  look  how  the  Italians,  at  this  dangerous 
moment,  fighting  in  a  terrain  so  dreadful,  with  mountains  on  which 
every  gun  must  be  dragged  up  an  inclined  plane  of  45  degrees,  fight- 
ing under  these  conditions,  are  gaining  victories.  And  why  are  they 
so  anxious  to  be  victorious  at  the  present  moment?  In  order  to 
relieve  us  in  Roumania,  in  Odessa,  on  which  the  Austrian  army  is 
advancing.  Follow  their  example,  comrades!  (Applause  from  the 
Right.     Voices:  "Long  live  the  Italians!"   Noise.) 

Comrades,  citizens,  the  war  is  one  thing  and  the  work  in  the  rear 
another  thing — however,  an  important  thing.  Repressive  measures, 
in  this  case,  will  get  us  nowhere.  Something  else  is  needed;  it  is 
necessary  that  the  great  mass  of  the  Russian  people  should 
understand  and  see  that  a  new  era  is  approaching,  an  era  that  will 
give  the  whole  people  the  opportunity  to  obtain  education,  to  live 
not  in  that  terrible,  horrifying  poverty  and  squalor  in  which  the 
Russian  people  have  lived  up  till  now  and  lived  at  all  times, — -even  at 
the  time  when  it  is  earning  millions,  as  it  is  said,  in  Petrograd.  It  is 
necessary  that  the  Russian  people  should  understand  that  we  are 
doing  everything  to  improve  the  conditions  of  their  life  and  open 
for  them  the  gates  to  light,  freedom  and  education.  (Applause  from 
the  Right.) 

Allow  me,  citizens  and  comrades,  to  call  you  to  this  creative  work. 
Some  one  spoke  here  of  how  inexperienced  our  Democracy  is.  True, 
we  are  all  inexperienced. 

Gentlemen,  you  have — I  am  not  speaking  of  your  capital — you 
have  something  that  is  more  important  than  capital, — the  knowledge 
of  life.  You  know  life,  you  know  commerce,  you  know  the  manu- 
facturing industry;  give  us,  then,  your  knowledge;  add  to  the 
energy  of  the  committees  and  councils,  combine  the  former  with  the 
latter  and  apply  them  to  the  up-building  of  the  new  life.  The  new  life 
we  must  have.  (Shouts:  "Bravo!"  Boisterous  applause.)  In  Petro- 
grad we  have  lines  in  which  the  wives  of  workmen  have  to  stand  two, 
three,   four  and   five  hours   in   order  to   obtain  bread  and  a  little  milk 


468  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


for  their  hungry  children.  Is  that  organization?  Where  then  are  you, 
city  heads  and  organizers  of  the  municipal  economy,  that  you  can't 
regulate  it?     Isn't   that  your  duty,  your  sacred  duty? 

I  must  not  take  up  much  of  your  time,  but  I  will  speak  of  one 
thing  more.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  proper  for  us  here,  at 
this  assembly  of  the  Russian  land,  to  state  our  firm  desire  that 
Russia  be  openly  declared  a  republic.  (Shouts:  "Right!"  All  rise; 
boisterous  applause  culminating  in  an  ovation.)  And,  citizens,  the 
republic  must  be  a  federated  one,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  see  it  in 
the  United  States,  where  every  state  has  its  own  legislative  bodies, 
these  legislative  bodies  deciding  all  the  interior  problems,  while  the 
Republic  in  all  its  decisions  needs  the  consent  of  several  States  or  of 
all  the  States. 

And  you  know  how  they  stood  up  together  when  it  became 
necessary  to  play  the  forces  of  the  Democracies  against  the  base 
Austro-German  monarchy.  (Noise  and  boisterous  applause.)  I  think 
that  it  is  not  without  reason  that  all  the  Democracies  of  the  whole 
world  have  united  against  Germany,  and  even  the  Democracy  of  China 
has  joined  and  will  help  us  worthily.  And  so  I  think  we  shall  not 
be  encroaching  upon  the  rights  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  I  fully 
recognize  that  the  sovereign  decision  of  such  a  question  should  be  left 
to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  if  this  assembly 
were  to  approve  our  desire  that  Russia  be  declared  a  republic, 
we  would  thus  have  facilitated  the  work  of  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
and  all  the  peoples  of  all  Europe  and  America  would  be  thankful  to 
us.  ("Right!"    Thundering  applause.) 

Comrades,  let  us  promise  each  other  that  we  will  not  stand 
divided  into  the  Right  and  the  Left.  (Boisterous  applause.)  We  have 
but  one  Fatherland,  and  for  the  whole  of  it  we  must  all  be  ready  to 
die,  the  conservative  and  the  radical."  (Thundering  applause,  cul- 
minating in  an  ovation.) 

Plekhanov's  Speech 

"In  this  solemn  and  threatening  hour  which  the  Fatherland  is 
living  through,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  of  us  to  emphasize  not  that 
which  divides  us,  but  that  which  unites  us.  (Boisterous  applause.) 
I  have  been  a  Revolutionist  and  only  a  Revolutionist.  I  hope  and  am 
convinced  that  you  will  have  enough  patience  to  listen  to  the  frank 
confession  of  a  Russian  Revolutionist.   (Boisterous  applause  ) 

If  we  should  exactly  formulate  that  which  took  place  in  the  spring 
of  1917,  we  would  have  to  say  that  the  Revolution  was  really  made 
by  the  country.  The  people  rebelled,  a  storm  broke  out,  and  our 
Imperial  Duma  supported  this  storm.  It  cooperated  with  this  rebel- 
lion, and  in  that  lies  its  great  merit.  We  would  have  been  ungrateful 
and  ignoble  people,  if  we  had  forgotten  that. 

But    it   is    necessary    to    remember    that    in    order    that    the    entire 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  469 


people  should  finally  rebel  against  the  disgraceful  regime,  extremely 
long,  intensive,  and  self-sacrificing  work  was  necessary.  It  is  neces- 
sary, with  historic  impartiality,  to  say  that  this  long,  intensive  and 
self-sacrificing  labor  was  performed  by  the  extreme  revolutionary 
democracy. 

I  have  courageously  and  bitterly  criticized  some  mistakes  of  our 
Party,  and  here,  in  the  Russian  National  Assembly,  I  solemnly 
declare  that  the  great  merit  of  our  extreme  revolutionary  democracy 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  revolutionary  democracy  exists  and  that  those 
people  are  poor  politicians  who  want  this  democracy  to  cease  to  exist. 

Speaking  to  those  who  represent  the  bourgeoisie,  or,  now  that 
this  term  is  beginning  to  acquire  a  somewhat  odious  meaning, 
I  will  say,  appealing  to  those  who  represent  the  commercial  and 
industrial  class,  I  will  say,  citizens,  the  moment  has  now  arrived  when 
you,  in  the  interests  of  all  Russia  and  in  your  own  interests  must  seek 
rapprochement  with  the.  proletariat,  must  seek  better  relations  with 
the  working  class. 

Citizens,  more  than  once  has  it  been  said  by  many  of  you, — 
who  of  us  has  not  said  if  more  than  once, — many  a  time  have  you  said 
that  at  the  present  time,  among  other  things,  Russia  is  faced  with 
the  great  problem  of  developing  her  productive  forces.  You  agree 
with  this.  We,  Socialists,  also  agree  with  this;  we  understand  that 
a  county  whose  productive  forces  are  in  a  low  stage  of  development 
is  incapable  either  of  political,  economic  or  social  progress.  (Ap- 
plause; voices:   "Right!") 

Yes,  a  great  development  of  forces  must  be  the  program  that 
all  connected  with  the  social-productive  process,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, set  before  themselves.  But  everyone  must  understand,  and, 
of  course  every  one  understands  that  at  present,  in  any  modern 
country,  the  most  valuable,  the  only  undoubtedly  productive  force 
is  its  working  class,  its  toiling  population.  (Shouts  from  the  Right: 
"Right!") 

Addressing  the  revolutionary  democracy,  addressing  it  rebukingly, 
I  hear  you  say:  'Yes,  the  revolutionary  democracy  was  given  this 
and  that,  but  still  the  revolutionary  democracy  was  ready  to 
conclude  a  separate  peace.'  No,  though  individuals  and  madmen  in 
the  ranks  of  this  revolutionary  democracy  have  allowed  themselves 
to  make  criminal  speeches  of  this  kind,  still  our  revolutionary  democ- 
racy, in  its  entirety,  will  never  agree  to  a  separate  peace.  I.  who  have 
differed  with  this  revolutionary  democracy  on  many  things,  permitting 
myself  to  speak  in  her  behalf,  vow  to  you  that  the  revolutionary 
democracy  will  never  commit  such  baseness.  (Applause:  shouts: 
"Right!")  We  will  not  agree  to  a  separate  peace  because  we  do  not 
want  to  betray  our  Allies,  we  do  not  want  to  betray  them,  and  with 
pride  do  we  say  that  our  Allies  are  at  the  lead  of  civilization! 


470  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


And  so,  even  if  this  party  of  the  extreme  revolutionary  democracy 
has  committed  the  errors  it  is  accredited  with,  still,  citizens,  you  will 
not  get  along  without  it.  Our  situation  is  such  that  you.  repre- 
sentatives, I  shall  say,  of  the  propertied  classes,  you  representatives 
of  the  commercial  and  industrial  classes,  you  who  sit  in  this  hall,  partly 
on  the  Right,  partly  in  the  Center,  you  must  understand  that  at  the 
present  time  a  somewhat  systematic  and  fruitful  economic  life  and 
struggle  with  the  exterior  enemy  are  impossible  if  you,  in  one  way  or 
another,  will  not  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  extreme  revolution- 
ary democracy,  and,  once  you  see  the  course  for  this  agreement,  once 
you  are  ready  to  recognize  the  program  of  broad,  sound  reform — 
here  is  the  course,  here  are  the  means  for  agreement  with  the  ex- 
treme revolutionary  democracy,  because,  what  is  the  declaration  of 
the  8th  of  July,  if  not  a  demand,  if  not  a  desire  of  the  extreme 
revolutionary  democracy  to  obtain  ordinary  reforms  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  working  class? 

Now,  comrades,  allow  me  to  address  you,  on  the  Left.  If  some- 
thing or  other  in  my  words  does  not  appeal  to  you,  then  I  ask  you  to 
calmly  give  me  a  hearing.  If  errors  should  appear  in  my  speech,  you 
will  recollect  that  for  forty  years  I  have  been  working  under  the 
revolutionary  banner  and  during  forty  years  one  may  make  even 
several  mistakes. 

Comrades,  recollect,  when  Lenine,  of  sad  fame,  came  to  us  and 
spoke  on  the  second  or  third  day  in  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Work- 
men's Delegates,  and  said  that  the  working  classes,  together  with 
the  Peasants'  and  Landworkers'  Delegates,  should  immediately  take 
the  governmental  power  into  their  own  hands — how  did  you  answer 
him  then?  You,  the  majority  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's 
Delegates,  said:  'No,  this  program  we  do  not  accept,  because  Russia 
is  now  passing  through  a  capitalistic  Revolution,  and  when  the  coun- 
try is  passing  through  a  capitalistic  Revolution  to  grasp  power,  full 
power,  is  absolutely  wrong.'  And  one  of  you, — I  do  not  know  exactly 
who, — (A  voice  from  the  Left:  "Tseretelli.")  reminded  us  of  the  ex- 
tremely meaningful  words  of  our  common  teacher,  Frederick  Engels, 
to  the  effect  that  for  the  working  class  there  can  be  no  greater  mis- 
fortune than  to  seize  full  governmental  power  at  the  moment  when  it 
is  not  yet  ripe  for  the  fruitful  application  of  this  power  in  deeds.  Is 
it  not  true  that  these  words  were  uttered,  and  that  these  words  were 
applauded  by  the  majority  of  the  Petrograd  Council? 

Comrades,  once  you  adopt  this  point  of  view,  once  you  understand 
the  full  political  and  theoretical  depth  of  these  words,  you  must,  in 
keeping  with  this  point  of  view,  determine  your  relations  to  the 
commercial  and  industrial  class.  There  cannot  be  any  capitalist  revolu- 
tion in  which  there  is  no  bourbeoisie.  There  can  be  no  capitalism  in 
which  there  are  no  capitalists.  As  this  is  logical,  it  must  be  under- 
stood, and  it  is  necessary  to  act  in  accordance  with  it. 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscow  471 


Since  we  still  have  to  pass  through  a  capitalistic  development,  then 
it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  this  process  is  double-sided,  in  which, 
on  one  side,  the  proletariat  acts,  and  on  the  other,  the  bourgeoisie, 
and  if  the  proletariat  and  the  bourgeoisie  do  not  want  to  injure  their 
interests,  then  the  one  and  the  other  class  must  in  good  faith  con- 
sider economic  and  political  agreement. 

When  the  elections  for  the  Constituent  Assembly  begin,  then 
probably  the  Russian  people,  the  Russian  toiling  masses,  will  say 
that  they  are  ready  to  follow  our  extreme  revolutionary  democracy. 
But  what  will  this  signify?  What  will  this  fact  of  the  tremendous 
and,  in  some  instances,  the  unexpectedly  successful  outcome  of  our 
municipal  elections  signify?  This  fact  will  signify  that  all  of  us, 
revolutionaries  and  Socialists,  have  signed,  to  the  toiling  masses,  a 
promissory  note  for  a  tremendous  amount.  This  note  will  be  dis- 
counted by  the  working  class.  This  note  will  be  discounted  by  the 
proletariat  of  the  toiling  masses  in  general.  But  there  is  no  note 
which  it  is  not  necessary  to  pay.  Similarly,  then,  for  you.  citizens, 
there  will  come  the  time  when  it  will  be  necessary  to  pay  this  note. 

Even  if  you  should  commit  the  mistake,  the  mistake  of  isolating 
yourselves,  if  you  should  not  do  everything  necessary  to  attract  to 
you  all  the  forces  of  the  country,  for  the  joint  work,  you  will  not 
be  in  a  position  to  pay  this  note,  not  because  you  will  not  have 
sufficient  good  will, — the  will  you  will  have, — but  because  there  will 
not  be  enough  power  for  that.  (Voices:  "Right!"  Applause.) 

And  when  you  appear  before  the  toiling  masses  as  an  insolvent 
debtor,  how  will  that  be  taken,  how  will  that  be  understood  by  the 
toiling  masses? 

Do  not  fear  to  admit  certain  errors  that  you  have  committed. 
Yesterday,  Comrade  Tseretelli,  to  my  greatest  satisfaction,  hinted  at 
some  of  them  in  his  speech.  Do  not  fear  to  admit  these  mistakes. 
And  as  the  object  is  not  to  repeat  these  mistakes,  avoid  repetition, 
avoid  isolation  from  the  commercial  and  industrial  classes.  And  be- 
sides, aside  from  this  class  and  aside  from  the  proletariat,  there  are  a 
number  of  other  classes  who  will  welcome  such  an  agreement.  This 
agreement  will  make  us  powerful,  unconquerable,  and  then  no  Mack- 
enzens,  no  Hindenburgs  need  be  dreaded  by  us. 

But  if,  citizens, — I  am  talking  to  the  Right  and  to  the  Lett, — if 
we  do  not  come  to  an  agreement,  what  will  happen  then?  Our  ruin, 
(turning  to  the  Right.)  Our  ruin,  (turning  to  the  Left.)  The  entire 
country  will  be  ruined.  Let  me  remind  you  of  an  Irish  legend  about 
two  cats  who  fought  so  stubbornly  and  so  cruelly  that  only  their 
tails  remained. 

But  you,  representatives  of  the  extreme  revolutionary  democracy, 
and  you.  representatives  of  the  commercial  and  industrial  class,  must 
not  be  adherents  of  an  unprecedented  struggle,  the  results  of  which 


472  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


would  leave  only  your  and  our  tails,  and  only  a  tail  would  be  left  of 
Russia  to  the  great  joy  of  the  German  capitalists."  (Voices:  "Correct: 
right!"   Applause.) 


The  National  Conference  was  closed  on  August  28th  with 
the  following  speech  by  Premier  Kerensky : 

Kerensky's  Concluding  Speech 

"The  National  Conference  is  ending.  The  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, in  spite  of  all  the  doubts  entertained  by  many  before  this 
Assembly,  convened  it  and  does  not  repent  now.  The  Pro- 
visional Government  held  and  still  holds  that  this  Assembly  is  of 
tremendous  significance,  because  the  delegations  of  the  citizens  of 
entire  Russia,  of  all  parties,  of  all  classes,  have  assembled  and  have 
expressed  openly  what  they  think,  that  which,  in  their  opinion,  is 
necessary  for  the  country  in  these  really  dangerous  days.  And  I  be- 
lieve that  a  greater  respect  for  one  another  has  been  attained,  that  the 
consciousness  has  been  attained  that  there  are  times  when  every  one 
must  forget  class  or  blood  affiliations. 

The  Provisional  Government  has  been  enabled  to  take  «.  snap- 
shot, so  to  say,  of  the  political  trend  of  the  country.  The  Govern- 
ment has  come  here  with  the  words:  'Order,  sacrifice,  labor,'  and 
the  Assembly  has  answered:  'We  will  sacrifice,  we  will  labor,  we  want 
order.'  Some  have  modified  their  answers  with  'If  our  neighbors 
will  do  the  same.'  It  is  necessary  that  someone  begin.  I  am  con- 
fident that  those  to  whom  the  freedom  of  the  Fatherland,  the  struggle 
for  the  future  is  dearest,  will  begin.  (Applause.)  We  are  told: 
'You  have  already  sold  yourselves  to  the  bourgeoisie.'  But  this  is 
said  not  by  those  who  sit  in  this  hall,  but  by  those  whom  we  have 
been  able  to  take  care  of  by  suppressing  the  revolt  of  July  17th,  the 
revolt  against  the  people's  Government.  We  are  told  that  we  are 
a  mirage  and  a  shadow,  that  we  are  in  the  power  of  a  dark  force  and 
are  not  free  in  our  actions,  but  I  must  say  that  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment is  not  dependent  on  any  force  except  the  one,  sole  force, 
the  force  of  the  people's  will,  and  that  we  seek. 

I  shall  not  summarize  the  opinions  that  have  been  expressed,  but 
everything  said  here  will  be  taken  into  consideration  for  the  saving 
of  the  country.  (Boisterous  applause.)  That  which,  in  our  conviction, 
will  not  coincide  with  the  interests  of  the  country,  we  will  not  do, 
no  matter  what  the  pressure  should  be,  even  if  we  should  be 
threatened  with  physical  compulsion.  We  were  told  that  the  Pro- 
visional Government  is  rapidly  leading  the  country  to  ruin.  We 
realize  that  the  Provisional  Government  exists  only  six  months  and 
that  the  Empire  existed  two  hundred  years,  and  many  did  not  want  to 
take  the  power  from  the  hands  of  the  old  Government,  wisely  arguing 


The  National  Conference  in  Moscoiv 


against  assuming,  in  the  last  months  of  the  war,  the  responsibility  for 
the  sins  of  others.  The  Provisional  Government  did  not  fear  to 
shoulder  this  responsibility,  neither  the  first  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, nor  the  present  one.  We  have  taken  upon  ourselves  both 
the  sins  of  the  old  Government  and  the  war,  and  we  not  only  take 
these  sins,  but  we  say:  'Cursed  be  the  one  who  advises  that  we  end 
the  struggle  now.'  (Boisterous,  continuous  applause  from  all  seats.) 

We.  perhaps,  will  come  in  for  sincere,  but  unjust  attacks,  for 
the  responsibility  falls  on  the  successors.  Much  of  which  the  present 
Provisional  Government  is  accused  was  adopted  by  the  first 
Provisional  Government.  I,  alone,  was  the  only  representative  of 
the  democracy  in  the  first  Provisional  Government,  and  that  was 
not  because  I  was  so  strong  that  I  did  everything  I  wanted, 
but  because  it  was  impossible  to  do  otherwise.  It  was  demanded  by 
life,  it  was  demanded  by  the  interests  of  the  country.  And  whoever 
comes  into  power  will  do  that  which  is  demanded  by  life.  You, 
yourselves,  know  that  the  present  Provisional  Government,  which  is 
more  democratic,  has  adopted  measures  which  the  first  Provisional 
Government  did  not  dare  adopt,  could  not  adopt,  for  they 
would  not  have  been  understood  by  the  country.  Stolypin  wa? 
mentioned  here,  but  Stolypin  placed  himself,  by  violence  and  com- 
pulsion, above  the  popular  will  and  suppressed  attempts  at  protest 
with  iron  and  blood.  We  are  now  only  protecting  that  which  is 
necessary  for  the  country,  cutting  off  those  who  want  to  submit  the 
popular  to  their  private  or  group  desires.  (Shouts  from  seats:  "And 
what  about  Zimmerwald?") 

The  Provisional  Government  considers  as  the  most  basic  and  vital 
problems,  the  problem  of  the  Army  and  the  strengthening  of  the  coun- 
try's financial  and  economic  life.  Everything  that  can  be  done,  we 
want  to  do.  We  would  want  the  symbolic  handclasp  to  bear  results. 
The  Provisional  Government  will  aid  the  rapprochement  of  the  two 
sides,  protecting  the  interests  of  each  of  the  conciliating  parties. 
The  Provisional  Government  regrets  that  statements  were  allowed 
here  on  the  subject  of  agitation  in  the  Army.  It  is  necessary  to 
remember  that  every  careless  word,  every  untactful  movement  tends 
to  irritate.  It  is  necessary  to  know  the  limitations  of  this  question, 
and  I  dare  assure  you  that  we  will  take  all  measures  to  strengthen 
the  fighting  power  of  the  Army,  and  I  will  not  agree  to  any  measures 
which,  in  my  conviction,  tend  to  produce  opposite  results.  At  times, 
even  at  present  many  commanders  resort  to  such  measures,  which 
should  not  be  permitted,  and  I  have  to  adopt  extraordinary  measures. 
It  is  necessary  not  to  create  an  unhealthy  curiosity  on  the  question 
of  the  Army.  The  Provisional  Government,  closing  the  present 
Assembly,  expresses  deep  appreciation  to  all  of  you  for  coming  to  aid 
in  its  difficult  task. 


474  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


On  the  question  of  the  Army,  I  must  retain  my  objective  point  of 
view.  Those  who  were  talking  of  a  marked  breach  must  remember 
that  it  is  not  yet  possible,  in  the  Army  and  Navy,  to  leave  the  com- 
manding staffs  and  the  soldiers,  face  to  face,  that  not  needlessly  have 
the  commissaries  come  into  the  Army  and  Fleet.  They  were  neces- 
sary. 

Perhaps  the  hopes  of  the  present  Assembly  will  not  be  realized, 
perhaps  the  country  will  not  have  enough  forces  to  find  the  road  of 
salvation,  but  everyone  will  remember  that  the  Russian  citizen,  called 
to  the  common,  only  cause,  that  of  saving  the  country,  went  hand 
in  hand  with  his  brother,  sweeping  aside  everything  that  created 
enmity  and  thinking  only  of  the  Fatherland. 

To-morrow  we  are  returning  to  our  difficult  task,  but  allow  me 
to  say,  in  the  name  of  the  Provisional  Government,  that  our  Father- 
land will  never  be  lost." 


CHAPTER  XV 
The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt 

THE  Moscow  Conference  showed  clearly  that  the  various 
progressive  groups  were  unable  to  unite  on  a  single 
political  and  social  program.  Germany  naturally  took 
advantage  of  this  situation,  the  growing  political  chaos  within 
the  country  and  the  demoralization  in  the  Armies.  She  re- 
sumed pressure  on  all  the  fronts,  and  the  Russian  Armies  stead- 
ily retired,  many  regiments  making  no  show  of  resistance.  On 
August  31  it  became  evident  that  the  Germans  were  preparing 
an  advance  on  Riga.  On  September  2  the  German  troops 
crossed  the  Dvina  southeast  of  Riga,  and  an  offensive  was 
started  in  the  region  of  Mitau,  southwest  of  Riga.  On  Septem- 
ber 3  it  was  officially  announced  that  Riga  had  surrendered. 

The  loss  of  Riga  intensified  the  political  unrest  in  Russia. 
Petrograd  became  apprehensive  over  the  approach  of  the  Ger- 
mans, and  large  numbers  of  people  began  to  leave  the  city.  The 
storm  broke  on  September  9,  when  General  L.  G.  Kornilov. 
who  on  August  2  had  succeeded  General  Alexis  A.  Brusilov 
as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies,  rose  in  revolt 
against  the  Provisional  Government.  Premier  Kerensky.  in 
an  official  announcement  on  September  10,  so  explained  the 
circumstances  under  which  Gen.  Kornilov  started  his  revolt 
against  the  Provisional  Government: 

"On  September  8th  General  Kornilov  sent  to  me  the  Duma  mem- 
ber, Vladimir  Nikolayevich  Lvov,  with  the  demand  that  the  Provis- 
ional Government  hand  over  all  civil  and  military  power  to  General 
Kornilov,  with  the  understanding  that  a  new  Government  be  selected 
by  General  Kornilov,  in  accordance  with  his  own  judgment.  That 
Deputy  Lvov  was  really  authorized  to  make  the  statement  was 
confirmed  in  the  course  of  a  conversation  which  T  had  with  General 
Kornilov  over  a  direct  wire. 

Seeing  in  this  demand  on  the  Provisional  Government  the  desire 
of  certain  spheres  of  Russian  society  to  take  advantage  of  the  difficult 
situation  in  order  to  establish  a  regime  in  direct  contradiction  to  the 
achievements  of  the  Revolution, — the  Provisional  Government  has 
found  it  necessary,  in  order  to  save  the  country,  our  liberty  and  the 
republican   form  of  government,   to   authorize   me   to  adopt  a   speedy 


476  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

and  resolute  course  in  order  to  nip  in  the  bud  all  attempts  at  usurping 
supreme  power  in  the  land  and  against  the  civic  rights,  won  by  the 
Revolution. 

All  measures  necessary  to  safeguard  liberty  and  order  in  the 
country  are  being  taken  and  the  people  will  be  informed  about  them 
in  due  time. 

At  the  same  time,  I  order  that 

1.  Kornilov  give  up  his  position  of  Commander-in-Chief  and  I 
appoint  as  his  successor  General  Klembovsky,  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Northern  Front  barring  the  way  to  Petrograd.  General  Klem- 
bovsky is  ordered  to  temporarily  assume  the  Chief  Command  and  to 
remain  in  Pskov. 

2.  The  City  of  Petrograd  and  the  County  of  Petrograd  are  declared 
in  a  state  of  siege,  subject  to  the  laws  and  regulations  governing 
localities  declared  in  a  state  of  siege. 

I  call  upon  all  citizens  to  observe  the  absolute  calm  and  order 
which  is  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  country. 

I  call  upon  all  men  in  the  Army  and  Navy  to  perform  their  duty 
calmly  and  with  utmost  devotion,  in  order  to  defend  the  country 
from  the  foreign  foe." 

To  this  General  Kornilov  responded  with  the  following 
open  telegram : 

"The  telegram,  No.  4963,  of  the  Prime  Minister,  is  one  big  lie  as 
far  as  its  first  paragraph  is  concerned.  I  did  not  send  the  Duma 
member,  Vladimir  Lvov,  to  the  Provisional  Government,  but  he 
came  to  me  as  the  messenger  from  the  Prime  Minister,  and  the 
member  of  the  First  Duma,  Al.  Aladyin,  can  bear  me  out.  Thus,  the 
great  act  of  provocation  has  taken  place  which  puts  the  fate  of  our 
country  at  stake.  Russians,  our  great  country  is  dying,  the  hour  of 
death  is  approaching.     I  am  compelled  to  come  out  into  the  open. 

I,  General  Kornilov,  declare  that  the  Provisional  Government, 
under  the  pressure  of  the  Bolsheviki  majority  in  the  Councils,  is 
playing  into  the  hands  of  the  German  General  Starr,  and  while  the 
landing  of  the  hostile  forces  is  expected  on  the  Riga  coast,  the  Gov- 
ernment is  killing  the  Army  and  ruining  the  country. 

The  consciousness  of  imminent  danger  to  the  country  bids  me 
at  this  hour  of  stress  to  call  upon  all  Russians  to  stand  up  for  the 
defense  of  the  country,  which  is  practically  dying.  Every  one  in 
whose  breast  beats  the  heart  of  a  Russian,  all  who  believe  in  God 
pray  to  the  Lord  that  he  work  a  miracle — the  miracle  of  saving  the 
country. 

I,  General  Kornilov,  the  son  of  a  peasant  and  the  descendant  of 
a  Cossack,  tell  you,  one  and  all,  that  I  personally  do  not  want  any- 
thing except  to  save  Russia,  and  I  pledge  myself  to  secure  for  the 
people,  through  victory  over   the  foreign   foe.   the  convocation  of  the 


The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt  4-11 


Constituent  Assembly,  in  which  the  people  themselves  will  decide 
upon  their  destiny  and  will  choose  the  form  of  their  new  political  life. 
To  betray  Russia  into  the  hands  of  her  old  enemy,  the  Teuton,  and 
to  make  the  Russian  people  slaves  to  the  Germans, — I  cannot  bear 
the  thought  of  it,  and  prefer  to  die  on  the  field  of  battle  so  as  not  to 
see  the  Russian  land  disgraced.  People  of  Russia,  the  fate  of  Russia 
is  in  your  hands." 

In  addition.  General  Kornilov  sent  the  following  telegram 
to  the  Central  Naval  Committee : 

"I,  the  Commander-in-Chief.  General  Kornilov,  declare  before 
the  entire  people  that  my  duty  as  a  soldier,  my  devotion  as  a  citizen 
of  free  Russia  and  my  boundless  love  for  my  country  have  prompted 
me  at  this  hour  of  stress  to  disobey  the  orders  of  the  Provisional 
Government  and  to  retain  the  position  of  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  people's  Army  and  Navy.  Supported  in  this  decision  by  the 
commanders  on  all  fronts,  I  declare  to  the  people  of  Russia  that  I 
prefer  death  to  resignation  from  the  post  of  Commander-in-Chief. 
A  true  son  of  the  Russian  people  always  dies  at  his  post  and  sacrifices 
on  the  altar  of  his  country  the  greatest  of  all  his  possessions,  his  life. 

At  this  truly  horrible  period  of  our  country's  existence,  when 
the  road  to  both  Capitals  is  almost  open  to  the  triumphal  march  of 
the  enemy,  the  Provisional  Government,  forgetting  the  grave  question 
of  the  country's  independence,  hurls  at  the  people  the  illusory  fear 
of  counter-revolution,  which  it  calls  forth  through  its  incompetent 
administration,   through   its   weakness   and   indecision. 

It  is  not  for  me,  having  given  all  my  life  loyally  to  the  country's 
service,  to  desert  my  post  of  guardian  of  the  liberties  of  our  great 
people  who  have  a  glorious  future  ahead  of  them.  But  at  present 
this  future  is  in  the  hands  of  weak,  spineless  people.  The  haughty 
foe,  who,  through  bribery  and  treachery,  is  disposing  of  our  country 
as  though  of  his  own,  is  menacing  not  only  the  cause  of  freedom  but 
the  very  existence  of  the  Russian  people.  Wake  up,  people  of  Russia, 
from  your  madness  and  from  your  blinding  fear,  and  cast  a  glance  at 
the  steep  precipice  towards  which  you  are  drifting  headlong. 

To  avoid  the  clash  of  arms,  to  avert  all  the  bloodshed  that 
would  result  from  fratricidal  war,  and  forgetting  all  insults,  I  say 
publicly  to  the  Provisional  Government:  'Come  to  my  headquarters, 
where  your  liberty  is  guaranteed  by  my  word  of  honor,  and  together 
with  me  work  out  the  Government  plan  for  national  defense,  which, 
while  securing  victory,  will  lead  the  Russian  people  to  its  great 
future,  the  future  fully  deserved  by  the  great  and  free  people.'  " 

The  conflict  was  launched.  The  Provisional  Government 
sent  the  following-  telegram  to  the  Provisional  Commissaries, 


478  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

signed   by    Premier   Kerensky   and   the    Minister   of   Interior, 
Avksentiev : 

"The  former  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Kornilov,  had  the 
audacity  to  voice  the  seditious  demand  that  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment yield  its  power  to  him.  In  reply  to  the  order  to  resign  from  the 
post  of  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Kornilov,  backed  by  the  re- 
actionary forces  in  the  country,  has  moved  part  of  his  troops,  whom 
he  has  deceived  by  false  information,  against  Petrograd.  The  crucial 
hour  of  fratricidal  war,  called  forth  by  his  treachery,  is  approaching. 
The  vast  majority  of  his  troops  remain  faithful  to  the  Provisional 
Government  and  to  the  democratic  Republic.  To  safeguard  the 
liberties  won  by  the  Revolution,  the  Provisional  Government  has 
taken  all  measures  to  defeat  the  new  enemy. 

General  Kornilov's  treachery  at  the  most  difficult  moment  in  our 
war  with  Germany,  when  the  enemy  troops  are  threatening  the 
Capital,  must  consolidate  all  the  sound  elements  in  the  country  in 
order  to  save  the  country  and  the  cause  of  liberty  from  the  threatened 
peril. 

The  Provisional  Government  suggests  that  the  Commissaries 
explain  to  the  people  the  events  which  are  now  taking  place  and  call 
upon  them  to  observe  order  and  keep  calm.  The  Provisional  Govern- 
ment suggests  that  the  Commissaries  take  all  necessary  steps  to  safe- 
guard the  achievements  of  the  Revolution  from  the  sinister  attempts 
directed  against  them.  In  complete  harmony  with  the  troops  and  the 
democratic  organizations,  the  Commissaries  must  resist  the  counter- 
revolutionary outbreaks  and  the  riots  of  the  ignorant  masses.  For 
the  salvation  of  the  country,  all  attempts  to  weaken  the  strength  of 
the  people,  in  their  struggle  for  liberty  and  the  defense  of  the  country 
against  treason  and  the  foreign  foe,  must  be  suppressed  by  the  most 
decisive  measures." 

At  the  same  time  A.  F.  Kerensky,  as  Prime  Minister  and 
Minister  of  War,  issued  the  following  orders : 

An  Order  to  the  Troops  ©f  Petrograd 

"The  former  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Kornilov,  who  has  risen 
against  the  authority  of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  who,  in  his 
telegrams,  has  been  proclaiming  his  patriotism  and  loyalty  to  the 
people,  has  now  proven  himself  in  reality  a  traitor.  He  has  drawn 
regiments  from  the  front,  thus  weakening  the  resistance  to  the  foreign 
foe,   and  has  sent  those  troops  against  Petrograd. 

He  talks  about  the  country's  salvation  and  deliberately  brings 
about  a  fratricidal  war;  he  claims  that  he  is  in  favor  of  liberty  and  at 
the  same  time  sends  a  division  of  troops  against  Petrograd. 

Comrades,  the  hour  has  struck  when  your  loyalty  to  the  cause  of 
liberty  and  the  Revolution  will  be  put  to  the  test,  and  fully  conscious 


The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt  479 

of  the  sacredness  of  your  duty  towards  the  country,  you  will  meet 
firmly  and  valiantly  your  former  comrades  now  deceived  by  Kornilov. 
Let  them  see  before  them  true  revolutionary  regiments,  firmly  de- 
termined to  defend  the  Government  and  the  Revolution.  And  let  them, 
before  it  is  too  late,  realize  the  shamefulness  of  the  vicious  cause 
which  they  have  been  sent  out  to  defend. 

If,  however,  they  fail  to  understand,  I,  your  Minister,  am  certain 
that  you  will  perform  your  grave  duty  to  the  very  end,  without 
any  fear." 

An  Order  to  the  Cossacks 

"Cossacks!  In  the  days  of  the  March  Revolution,  when  the  old 
autocratic  power  was  overthrown  by  one  mighty,  united  stroke  of  the 
entire  nation,  you,  liberty-loving  and  free,  were  in  the  front  ranks 
of  the  revolutionary  people  who  had  risen  against  the   Government. 

In  the  dark  days  of  July  16-18,  when  an  irresponsible  handful  of 
people  made  the  first  attempt  to  pave  the  way  for  counter-revolution 
through  a  political  coup  d'etat,  true  to  your  duty,  you  responded  to 
the  first  call  of  the  Provisional  Government,  stood  up  solidly  for  the 
defense  of  all  the  achievements  of  our  great  Revolution  and  fearlessly 
obeyed  the  sacred  will  of  the  Democracy. 

Now  our  country  is  living  through  a  new  and  difficult  trial.  At 
the  head  of  the  counter-revolutionary  conspirators  is  the  former 
Commander-in-Chief,  General  Kornilov.  In  the  face  of  the  entire 
Army  of  many  millions,  he  has  committed  the  criminal  act  of 
mutiny  against  the  entire  people  and  against  its  head,  the  Provisional 
Government. 

But  the  entire  Army  and  its  best  leaders  and  officers  have  re- 
mained true  to  their  revolutionary  duty  and  have  not  stained  their 
honor  with  the  base  act  of  treachery. 

The  Provisional  Government  and,  with  it,  the  entire  nation  firmly 
believe  that  the  liberty-loving  and  free  Cossacks  will,  as  ever,  remain 
in  the  front  ranks  of  the  revolutionary  troops,  and  in  complete 
solidarity  with  the  entire  Army  and  the  people,  honorably  and  bravely 
suppress  the  seditious  attempt  of  the  sinister  conspirators." 

In  this  crisis  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  placed  her  full 
and  active  support  behind  the  Provisional  Government.  The 
Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates  and  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  issued  the 
following  joint  appeals : 

To  the  Entire  Army 

"Comrades,  officers  and  soldiers!  General  Kornilov  has  mutinied 
against  the  Revolution  and  the   Provisional    Government.     He   want-; 


480  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


to  restore  the  old  regime  and  to  deprive  the  people  of  land  and  lib- 
erty. For  his  criminal  ends  he  is  ready  to  open  the  front  to  the 
Germans  and  betray  the  country. 

Comrades,  soldiers  and  officers!  The  Revolution  and  the  country, 
call  upon  you  to  perform  your  duty.  Stand  up,  all  of  you,  as  one 
man,  for  the  defense  of  your  land  and  liberty.  Not  one  of  General 
Kornilov's  orders  must  be  carried  out.  Obey  only  the  orders  of  the 
Provisional  Government  and  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates.  Rally  around 
them!  Now  that  the  foreign  foe  is  threatening  Petrograd,  the  Army 
must  remain  united  and  strong.  Now  every  officer  and  every  soldier 
is  especially  needed  by  the  country  which  they  must  defend  against 
the   foreign  foe. 

A  negligible  handful  of  traitors  are  taking  part  in  the  mutiny 
against  the  Revolution.  There  must  be  no  lynching  of  officers  or 
soldiers.  The  Provisional  Government  and  the  Executive  Committees 
are  taking  all  measures  towards  discovering  all  the  participants  in  the 
plot,  who  will  be  made  to  suffer  the  punishment  they  deserve. 

Comrades,  soldiers  and  officers,  act  unanimously.  In  this  way  you 
will  save  the  country  from  the  foreign  foe.  Thus  by  saving  the  country 
and  liberty,  you  will  save  the  Republic  and  the  democratic  organiza- 
tion of  the  Army.  In  this  way,  you  will  save  yourselves  and  you  will 
avert  unnecessary  sacrifices. 

For  the  sake  of  all  this,  the  Executive  Committees  of  the  Councils 
of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  call  upon  all  officers 
and  soldiers  to  rally  to  the  defense  of  the  country,  the  Revolution 
and  the  Provisional  Government  against  the  traitors  who  have  arisen 
against  the  Revolution  and  against  the  people." 
To  All  Railway  Workers 

"Comrades!  General  Kornilov  has  betrayed  the  country  and  the 
Revolution.  He  has  declared  himself  a  dictator  and  has  the  audacity  to 
bear  arms  against  the  Provisional  Government. 

For  the  sake  of  his  criminal  schemes  he  is  ready  to  destroy  the 
Russian  Army  through  civil  strife  and  to  open  the  frontier  to  the 
enemy.  He  is  seeking  to  drown  the  Revolution  in  blood  and  is 
sending  troops  against  Petrograd. 

The  Provisional  Government  and  the  Central  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  have 
taken  all  measures  to  suppress  the  mutiny  started  by  the  treacherous 
General.  All  democratic  parties,  all  Petrograd  workingmen  and  sol- 
diers have  responded  to  the  call  of  the  Revolution  and  will  crush  every 
attempt  at  armed  uprising  against  the  Provisional  Government  and 
the   Capital. 

But  it  rests  with  you,  railway  workers,  to  avert  unnecessary 
bloodshed.      Do    your    duty    without    relaxing    your    zeal.      Let    your 


The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt  181 


committees  keep  vigilant  watch  over  the  movement  of  troops  towards 
Petrograd,  let  them  inform  the  Central  Executive  Committee  and 
let  them  obey  unconditionally  all  orders  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  of  the  Central  Committee  to  detain  the  troops  or  to  send 
them  in  another  direction. 

The  hour  has  struck  and  the  country  and  the  Revolution  are  de- 
manding from  you  faithful  service.  It  is  up  to  you  to  prove  that  you 
are  worthy  sons  of  revolutionary  Russia. 

All  orders  of  General  Kornilov  must  remain  unheeded  and  must 
immediately  be  communicated  to  the  Central  Executive  Committee. 
Obey  only  the  Provisional  Government  and  the  Councils  of  Work- 
men's,  Soldiers'   and   Peasants'   Delegates." 

Events  moved  rapidly  and  on  September  15  the  Provisional 
Government  was  able  to  officially  announce  that  Gen.  Korni- 
lov's revolt  had  been  suppressed.  The  revolt  ended  almost 
without  any  bloodshed,  with  Gen.  Kornilov's  arrest.  A.  F. 
Kerensky  was  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian 
Armies  and  Gen.  Alexeiev  was  appointed  Chief  of  the  General 
Staff. 

Immediately  thereafter  it  was  deemed  expedient  to  officially 
declare  Russia  a  Republic.  The  declaration  was  signed,  in 
behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government,  by  Premier  Kerensky 
and  Minister  of  Justice  Zarudny : 

"General  Kornilov's  muliny  is  suppressed.  But  great  is  the  dis- 
turbance which  it  has  created  in  the  Army  and  the  country.  And 
the  danger  which  is  threatening  the  fate  of  the  Fatherland  and  its 
freedom  is  again  great. 

Considering  it  necessary  to  put  an  end  to  the  outward  indefinite- 
ness  of  the  form  of  Government,  remembering  the  unanimity  and 
the  enraptured  acceptance  of  the  republican  idea  demonstrated  at 
the  Moscow  Conference,  the  Provisional  Government  declares  that 
the  Government  order  by  which  the  Russian  State  is  ruled  is  a 
republican  order,  and  proclaims  the  Russian  Republic. 

The  necessity  for  adopting  immediate  and  resolute  measures  for 
the  restoration  of  the  tottering  Government  order  has  impelled  the 
Provisional  Government  to  transfer  all  its  governing  authority  to  five 
persons  of  its  personnel,  with  the  Minister-President  at  the  head. 

The  Provisional  Government  considers  as  its  chief  problem  the 
restoration  of  governmental  order  and  the  fighting  power  of  the 
Army. 

Convinced  that  only  the  concentration  of  all  the  living  forces  of 
the  country  can  extricate  the  Fatherland  from  that  difficult  situation 
in  which  it  finds  itself,  the  Provisional  Government  will  invite  into 
its  ranks  the  representatives  of  those  elements  who  put  the  permanent 


482  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


and  common   interests   of   the    Fatherland   above   the   temporary  and 
private  interests  of  separate  parties  or  classes. 

The  Provisional  Government  has  no  doubt  but  that  it  will  accom- 
plish this  task  within  the  next  few  days." 


MANY  details  of  the  Kornilov  episode  are  still  missing 
and  many  important  documents  must  still  be  pub- 
lished before  the  public  will  be  able  to  come  to  an 
impartial  and  fair  judgment  of  this  event.  Several  things, 
however,  are  almost  certain.  The  first  is  that  Kerensky  knew 
about  the  movement  of  several  detachments  from  the  Front 
towards  Petrograd,  and  it  is  probable  that  as  Prime  Minister 
and  Minister  of  War,  realizing  the  growing  Bolshevist  danger, 
he  called  for  them. 

V.  N.  Lvov  played  the  most  fatal  role  in  the  incident,  pre- 
senting A.  F.  Kerensky,  in  behalf  of  Gen.  Kornilov,  with  an 
ultimatum  about  which  Gen.  Kornilov  most  likely  knew  noth- 
ing. This  ultimatum  made  the  movement  of  Kornilov's  de- 
tachments towards  Petrograd  appear,  in  Kerensky's  eyes,  as 
a  counter-revolutionary  movement  endangering  the  country's 
liberty.  Kerensky  demanded  that  Gen.  Kornilov  give  up  his 
post  of  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies.  This  de- 
mand was  sudden  and  humiliating  for  the  General  and  he  re- 
fused to  obey. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  Kornilov's  revolt  was  a  great 
misfortune  for  Russia.  It  resulted  in  massacres  of  innocent 
officers  in  the  Army  and  Navy ;  it  gave  strength  to  Bolshe- 
vism, which  used  the  danger  of  a  counter-revolution  as  a 
means  to  excite  the  masses,  to  make  them  suspicious  and  to 
throw  them,  finally,  against  the  Provisional  Government. 
However,  it  is  only  a  minimum  of  justice  to  state  that  General 
Kornilov,  although  committing  a  wrong,  was  impelled  to  his 
action  by  patriotic  motives. 

The  disintegration  of  the  Army  was  Kornilov's  personal 
tragedy.  Probably  none  of  the  generals  in  the  Russian  Army 
felt  the  approaching  catastrophe  as  keenly  as  Kornilov.  He 
was  always  frank  in  expressing  his  views  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  military  crisis,  in  July,  1917,  on  being  appointed  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Southwestern   Front,  he  sent  the  fol- 


The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt  483 

lowing  telegram  to  the  Minister  of  War,  A.  F.  Kerensky,  and 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies.  General 
Brusilov : 

"An  Army  of  ignorant  people  gone  mad,  with  demoralization  and 
disintegration  unchecked  by  the  Government,  with  their  sense  of  self- 
respect  and  dignity  lost,  is  fleeing. 

On  the  fields,  which  cannot  even  be  called  fields  of  battle,  dishonor 
and  terror  are  reigning  supreme,  to  an  extent  which  the  Russian  Army 
has  never  known  since  the  very  beginning  of  its  existence. 

This  disaster  can  be  checked,  and  this  dishonor  must  be  removed 
either  by  the  Revolutionary  Government  or,  if  they  prove  incapable, 
the  inevitable  course  of  history  will  push  forward  other  people  who 
will  at  the  same  time  destroy  the  achievements  of  the  Revolution  and 
thus  deprive  the  country  of  happiness. 

There  is  no  choice,  the  Revolutionary  Government  must  adopt  a 
firm  and  definite  course.  That  is  the  only  salvation  for  the  country 
and  for  freedom. 

I.  General  Kornilov,  whose  entire  life  from  the  first  days  of  my 
conscious  existence  was  spent  in  devoted  service  to  my  country, — I 
state  that  the  country  is  perishing  and  therefore,  though  I  have  not 
been  asked  for  advice,  I  demand  that  all  offensive  operations  be 
stopped  on  all  fronts  at  once,  in  the  interests  of  saving  and  safe- 
guarding the  Army  from  disintegration,  for  the  purpose  of  reorgan- 
izing it  on  the  principles  of  strict  discipline  and  in  order  to  save  the 
lives  of  many  heroes  who  have  a  right  to  see  better  days. 

As  a  temporary  measure,  called  for  exclusively  by  the  desperate 
situation,  it  is  necessary  to  immediately  restore  capital  punishment 
and  to  establish  court-martials  in  the  war  zone. 

We  must  not  deceive  ourselves;  indulgence  on  the  part  of  the 
Government,  while  shattering  the  discipline  which  is  so  indispensable 
in  the  Army,  at  the  same  time  gives  rise  to  uncalled-for  cruelty  on 
the  part  of  the  unrestrained  masses,  a  cruelty  which  finds  expression 
in   violence,  robberies  and   murders. 

We  must  not  delude  ourselves;  the  Army  is  constantly  menaced 
not  only  by  the  enemy's  bullets,  but  by  our  own  people  as  well. 

Capital  punishment  will  save  nrany  innocent  lives  at  the  cost  of 
a  few  cowards  and  traitors. 

I  declare  that  while  I  occupy  my  present  high  and  responsible 
post,  I  shall  never  consent  to  serve  as  a  tool  for  destroying  my 
country.  Enough!  I  say  that  if  the  Government  will  not  sanction  the 
measures  I  propose,  and  in  so  doing  deprive  me  of  the  only  means 
of  saving  the  Army,  and  of  using  my  authority  for  its  true  purpose, 
the  defense  of  the  country  and  the  cause  of  liberty,  then  I,  General 
Kornilov.  will  of  my  own  accord  resign  from  the  post  of  Commander- 
in-Chief." 


484  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


On  August  1st,  appointed  Comander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian 
Armies.  General  Kornilov  sent  A.  F.  Kerensky  the  following 
telegram  : 

"The  decision  of  the  Provisional  Government  appointing  me  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, I  shall  obey  as  a  soldier  in  duty  bound  to  be  an 
example  of  military  discipline,  but,  as  Commander-in-Chief  and  a 
citizen  of  free  Russia,  I  declare  that  I  shall  remain  at  this  post  only 
so  long  as  I  feel  that  I  am  useful  to  the  country  and  to  the  existing 
order. 

In  view  of  the  above  stated,  I  hereby  wish  to  inform  that  I  accept 
the  appointment  on   the  following  conditions: 

1.  I  shall  be  responsible  to  my  own  conscience  and  to  the  people 
at  large. 

2.  There  shall  be  no  interference  with  my  orders  referring  to 
military  operations,  consequently  there  must  be  no  interference  with 
my  appointment  of  the  commanding  officers. 

3.  All  measures  lately  introduced  at  the  front  are  to  be  valid  in 
the  rear  as  well  wherever  there  are  any  reinforcements  for  the  Army. 

4.  The  acceptance  of  my  suggestions,  offered  by  telegraph  to  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  regarding  the  Conference  at  Headquarters  on 
July  31. 

I  hereby  announce  that  only  on  condition  that  the  above-mentioned 
terms  are  accepted  will  I  be  in  a  position  to  perform  the  duties  im- 
posed on  me  by  the  Provisional  Government,  and  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  gallant  officers  and  the  enlightened  soldiers  lead  the  Army 
and  the  people  to  victory  and  the  much-desired,  just  and  honorable 
peace." 

Kornilov's  feelings  for  the  Army  and  its  tragedy  are  prob- 
ably best  expressed  in  his  farewell  order  to  the  troops  of  the 
Southwestern  Front,  issued  on  August  2,  after  his  appoint- 
ment as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian  Armies : 

"Appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Armies  on  the  Southwest- 
ern Front,  I  accepted  the  post  at  a  moment  fraught  with  difficulties. 
The  break  in  our  lines  caused  by  the  wilful,  treacherous  retreat  of  the 
Mlynsky  and  Olyksky  regiments  of  the  6th  Grenadier  Division,  has 
grown  into  a  catastrophe  affecting  a  considerable  part  of  the  Front. 
Nevertheless,  I  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  assume  the  duties  of 
Commander-in-Chief  at  such  a  critical  moment,  and  I  accepted  the  post 
because  I  always  believed,  and  shall  continue  to  believe  in  the  gallantry 
and  heart  of  the  Russian  officer  and  soldier,  whom  no  criminal  propa- 
ganda of  people  who  have  sold  themselves  for  money  to  the  eternal  foe 
of  Russia  will  ever  make  forget  their  duty  towards  the  country  and  the 
honor  of  their  people  and  the  Army. 


The  Fall  of  Riga  and  Kornilov's  Revolt  485 


My  faith  in  the  officers  and  the  soldiers  of  the  Russian  Army  did 
not  play  me  false.  In  the  continuous  battles  raging  on  the  South- 
western Front  the  Armies  grew  steadily  stronger  and  dealt  heavy  blows 
to  the  enemy,  who  had  to  continually  send  forward  new  and  fresh  divi- 
sions. True  that  under  the  pressure  of  numerically  superior  forces  our 
Armies  were  compelled  to  retreat  to  the  frontier,  but  this  did  not  keep 
them  from  attempting  counter-attacks  from  time  to  time  and  even  an 
offensive,  frequently  compelling  the  enemy  to  flee  and  taking  many  cap- 
tives and  much  booty. 

Fully  realizing  the  heavy  responsibilities  devolving  upon  me  at 
this  hour  of  stress,  upon  which  our  country's  future  is  dependent,  I 
was  forced  to  take  upon  myself  the  initiative  in  the  matter  of 
restoring  capital  punishment  and  revolutionary  court-martials.  But 
I  decided  upon  this  step  firmly  believing  that  the  entire  Army, 
the  entire  people  of  Russia  share  my  views  at  this  moment,  for  it  is 
only  by  stringent  measures  that  the  Army  can  be  purged  of  traitors 
and  spies.  I  know  that  in  a  strong  guiding  will  lies  the  salvation 
of  the  Army  and  the  country's  future,  the  support  of  the  commanding 
staff  and  the  control  of  the  soldiers.  I  knew  this  and  did  not  hesitate 
to  resort  to  the  most  drastic  measures  for  the  sake  of  the  country's 
salvation.  I  do  not  regret  my  step  for  daily  facts  present  themselves 
showing  that  the  Army's  strength  and  power  of  resistance  are  in- 
creasing, thus  proving  the  necessity  for  and  advantages  of  my  decisions. 

On  August  1st  I  was  appointed  by  the  Provisional  Government 
Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  Armies,  and  again,  for  the  sake  of 
the  salvation  of  the  country  and  our  freedom  I  accepted,  without 
hesitation,  with  a  firm  belief  in  the  spirit  and  courage  of  the  entire 
staff  and  rank  and  file  of  the  Armies  entrusted  to  my  care,  the  com- 
plicated and  responsible  duties  at  this  difficult  moment  in  the  re- 
organization of  the  Army. 

Generals,  Officers  and  Soldiers!  In  the  continuous  battles  of  late 
you  have  shown  your  determination,  your  will  to  win  or  die. 

Generals,  Officers  and  Soldiers!  I  trust  that  the  Russian  Army, 
steeled  by  its  experiences  and  united  into  one  family  bound  together 
by  iron  discipline,  will  again  wage  an  offensive.  I  trust  that  this 
offensive  will  prove  victorious  and  will  decide  the  fate  of  the  people 
and  the  outcome  of  the  war,  and  will  lead  to  immediate  peace. 

Leaving  the  Armies  of  the  Southwestern  Front  to-day,  I  bid  you 
farewell,  my  valiant  comrades-in-arms. 

For  the  conscientious  service  and  the  great  work  performed  by 
the  Chief  of  Staff  and  all  the  officers  of  the  Headquarters,  I  thank  all 
the  Commanders  of  the  various  Armies  and  all  the  generals,  officers  and 
soldiers,  and  all  those  who  worked  with  me  in  the  interests  of  the  Armies 
at  the  Front." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The   Democratic   Conference  and  the 
Preliminary  Parliament 

IN  addition  to  the  National  Conference,  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants' 
Delegates,  under  the  pressure  of  the  growing  crisis,  called 
the  Democratic  Conference,  which  met  on  September  27.  The- 
composition  of  this  Conference  was  more  democratic  than 
that  of  the  National  Conference.  The  Councils  of  Workmen's, 
Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  were  represented  by  230 
delegates;  the  Municipalities,  300  delegates;  the  Zemstvos, 
200  delegates;  the  cooperative  societies,  120;  the  trade  unions, 
100;  the  Army  organizations,  83;  the  Cossacks,  35,  etc. 

The  Democratic  Conference  resulted  in  the  creation  of  a 
new  coalition  Cabinet,  the  last  Cabinet  under  Premier 
Kerensky,  and  in  the  formation  of  the  Preliminary  Parlia- 
ment. The  new  coalition  Cabinet,  aside  from  Kerensky,  was 
composed  of  M.  I.  Terestchenko  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs; Nikitine,  Minister  of  Interior;  S.  S.  Maslov,  Minister 
of  Agriculture;  Bernatzky,  Minister  of  Finance;  A.  I.  Konova- 
lov,  Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry ;  Gvozdiev,  Minister  of 
Labor;  S.  N.  Prokopovich,  Minister  of  Supply;  Tretiakov, 
President  of  Economic  Council ;  Maliantovich,  Minister  of 
Justice ;  Salaskin,  Minister  of  Education ;  Kartashev,  Procura- 
tor of  the  Holy  Synod;  General  Verkhovsky,  Minister  of  War; 
Admiral  Verderevsky,  Minister  of  the  Navy;  Liverevsky, 
Minister  of  Means  of  Communication  ;  Kishkin,  Minister  of 
Public  Welfare,  and  Smirnov,  State  Controller.  According  to 
party  affiliation,  there  were  in  the  new  Cabinet,  aside  from 
the  Minister  of  War  and  Navy  (non-partisan),  2  Socialists- 
Revolutionists,  5  Social-Democrats  and  8  Constitutional- 
Democrats.  On  October  8th  the  new  Cabinet  issued  the  fol- 
lowing declaration  : 

"Great,  boundless  is  the  responsibility  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, on  whom  devolves  the  historic  task  of  bringing  Russia  to  a 
state  where  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  will  be  pos- 
sible. The  burden  of  this  responsibility  is  alleviated  only  by  the  deep 
conviction  that,  united  by  the  common  desire  to  save  the  Fatherland 


r^  —  ^  c/rc,■£ls/; 
f— i    ~  ~~  i_  •—         '-> 

v  o       ci   >  ci 
c  u  c  cT5:s.2  « 

'7  "3^    rt    rt    03    E  J^ 

o  c  c  « jr-      4>_ 


488  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


and  to  protect  the  achievements  of  the  Revolution,  the  representatives 
of  all,  classes  of  the  Russian  people  will  understand  the  necessity  for 
cooperation  with  the  Provisional  Government  in  establishing  a  firm 
governmental  power,  capable  of  realizing  the  urgent  demands  of  the 
country  arid  bringing  it,  without  further  upheavals,  to  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  the  convocation  of  which,  it  is  the  deep  conviction  of  the 
Provisional  Government,  cannot  be  postponed  for  one  day. 

Leaving  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  sovereign  master  of 
Russia,  the  final  solution  of  all  great  questions  on  which  the  welfare 
of  the  Russian  people  depends,  the  Provisional  Government  holds 
that  only  by  carrying  out  energetically  a  series  of  resolute  measures 
in  all  spheres  of  State  life,  will  it  be  able  to  fulfill  its  duty  and 
satisfy  the  urgent  needs  of  the  nation. 

In  the  firm  consciousness  that  only  a  general  peace  will  enable  oui 
great  Fatherland  to  develop  all  its  creative  forces,  the  Provisional 
Government  will  continue  incessantly  to  develop  its  active  foreign 
policy  in  the  spirit  of  the  democratic  basis  proclaimed  by  the  Russian 
Revolution. 

Acting  in  complete  accord  with  the  Allies,  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment will,  in  the  next  few  days,  take  part  in  the  conference  of  the 
Allied  Powers.  At  this  conference  the  Provisional  Government  will 
be  represented,  among  other  Delegates,  by  one  who  particularly 
enjoy"  the  confidence  of  the  democratic  organizations. 

At  this  conference  our  representatives,  together  with  the  solution 
of  common  questions  and  military  problems,  -will  strive  towards  an 
agreement  with  the  Allies  on  the  ground  of  the  principles  proclaimed 
by  the  Russian  Revolution.  . 

Striving  for  peace,  the  Provisional  Government  will,  however, 
use  all  its  forces  for  the  protection  of  the  common,  Allied  cause,  for 
the  defense  of  the  country,  for  resolute  resistance  to  any  efforts  to 
wrest  national  territory  from  us  and  impose  the  will  of  any  foreign 
power  on  Russia,  and  for  the  repulsion  of  the  enemies'  troops  from 
the  borders  of  the  Fatherland. 

For  the  purpose  of  securing  for  the  revolutionary  authorities 
close  contact  with  the  organized  public  forces  and  thus  imparting 
to  the  Government  the  necessary  stability  and  power,  the  Pro- 
visional Government  will  in  the  next  few  days  work  out  and 
publish  a  decree  establishing  a  Provisional  Council  of  the  Republic,* 
which  is  to  function  until  the  Constituent  Assembly  convenes.  This 
Council,  in  which  all  classes  of  the  population  will  be  represented 
and  in  which  the  delegates  elected  to  the  Democratic  Conference  will 
also  participate,  will  be  given  the  right  of  addressing  questions 
to  the  Government  and  of  securing  replies  to  them  in  a  definite  period 


♦The   Provisional    Council    of    the    Republic    is    more    known    under    the 
name  of  the  Preliminary  Parliament 


I 


The  Democratic  Conference  and  Preliminary  Parliament       489 


of  time,  of  working  out  legislative  acts  and  discussing  all  those 
questions  which  will  be  presented  for  consideration  by  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  as  well  as  those  which  will  arise  on  its  own 
initiative.  Resting  on  the  cooperation  of  such  a  council,  the  Govern- 
ment, preserving,  in  accordance  with  its  pledge,  the  unity  of  the 
governmental  power  created  by  the  Revolution,  will  regard  it  its 
duty  to  consider  the  great  public  significance  of  such  a  council  in 
all  its  acts  up  to  the  time  when  the  Constituent  Assembly  will  give 
full  and  complete  representation  to  all  classes  of  the  population  of 
Russia. 

Standing  firmly  on  this  program,  which  expresses  the  hopes  of  the 
people,  and  calling  upon  all  for  immediate  and  active  participation 
in  the  preparations  for  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
in  the  shortest  period  of  time,  the  Provisional  Government  presumes 
that  all  citizens  of  Russia  will  now  rally  closely  to  its  support  for  the 
united  work,  in  the  name  of  the  basic  and  paramount  problems  of 
our  time,  the  defense  of  the  Fatherland  from  the  foreign  enemy,  the 
restoration  of  law  and  order  and  the  leading  of  the  country  to  the 
sovereign  Constituent  Assembly." 

The  Preliminary  Parliament  was  opened  on  October  8.  Its 
membership  was  limited  to  555.  Due  to  the  fact  that  53 
Bolsheviki  and  5  members  of  other  factions,  who  joined  the 
Bolsheviki,  left  the  Preliminary  Parliament  at  the  beginning 
of  its  activities,  there  remained  497  members.  Of  these  153 
represented  the  middle  class,  the  so-called  bourgeoisie,  and  344 
the  laboring  masses. 

The  life  of  the  Preliminary  Parliament  was  short.  It  was 
dispersed  by  the  Bolsheviki  on  November  7,  1917.  On  Novem- 
ber 6  A.  F.  Kerensky  made  his  last  speech  before  the  Prelim- 
inary Parliament,  which  throws  light  upon  the  power  that 
brought  about  the  downfall  of  the  Provisional  Government 
and  brought  Russia  to  its  temporary  ruin. 

Kerensky's  Last  Speech 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Preliminary  Parliament,  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment has  authorized  me  to  make  the  following  statement: 

Of  late,  the  nearer  the  day  for  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly  approaches,  the  more  arrogant,  persistent  and  shameless 
are  the  attempts  of  the  two  wings  in  our  political  life  to  prevent  the 
convocation  of  this  Assembly  which  will  fortify  and  indorse  for  all 
time  the  free  and  democratic  order  won  by  the  great  Russian  Revolu- 
tion. At  the  same  time  more  persistent  are  growing  the  endeavors 
to  disorganize  Russia's  defense  and  betray  the  liberty  and  independ- 


490  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

ence  of  the  country  into  the  hands  of  the  cruel  and  relentless  foe  who 
is  moving  on  our  Capital.  The  Provisional  Government,  as  I  have 
already  said  on  more  than  one  occasion,  and  as  I  have  said  here, 
considers  it  its  duty  to  safeguard  the  rights  granted  the  citizens  and 
their  freedom  to  exercise  their  political  and  personal  rights,  and  it 
therefore  remains,  as  you  can  see,  indifferent  to  the  very  pointed  criti- 
cism to  which  it  is  being  subjected  in  the  press,  at  the  public  meetings 
and   gatherings. 

I  shall  take  the  liberty,  for  the  purpose  of  substantiating  my  state- 
ments and  making  it  impossible  for  anybody  to  reproach  the  Pro- 
visional Government  for  wrongly  accusing  or  maliciously  libelling 
any  party,  I  shall  take  the  liberty,  and  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  cite 
for  you  the  most  definitely  phrased  passage  from  a  number  of 
proclamations  published  in  the  local  paper  'Rabochiy  Put'  in  the  form 
of  'Letters  to  the  Comrades'  by  Ulyanov-Lenine.  the  much-sought 
offender  against  the  State  who  is  now  in  hiding.  This  said  offender 
against  the  State  called  upon  the  proletariat  of  Petrograd  and  upon 
the  troops  to  repeat  the  experiment  of  July  16-17,  and  argued  in  favor 
of  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  armed  uprising.  Thus,  for  example, 
in  one  of  the  issues  containing  the  first  of  a  series  of  these  proclama- 
tions, Ulyanov-Lenine  wrote:  'On  the  16th  of  October,  in  the  morning, 
I  learned  that  at  a  very  important  Bolshevist  meeting  in  Petrograd 
the  question  of  the  uprising  was  being  discussed  in  detail.  At  that 
meeting  were  present  all  who  were  prominent  in  the  Bolshevist  activi- 
ties in  the  Capital,  and  only  a  negligible  minority — two  comrades — 
disapproved  of  the  uprising.  It  is  necessary  to  analyze  their  argu- 
ments and  expose  the  grounds  for  their  hesitation  in  order  to  prove 
how  disgraceful  they  are.'  I  shall  not  expatiate  on  the  arguments 
in  favor  of  an  immediate  armed  uprising,  but  I  must  say  that  this 
same  proclamation  ends  in  the  following  way:  'What  are  you  going 
to  wait  for?  Are  you  waiting  for  a  miracle?  Are  you  waiting  for 
the  Constituent  Assembly?  Are  you  waiting,  you  who  are  hungry! 
Kerensky  has  promised  to  call  the  Constituent  Assembly.'  In  the 
next  appeal  the  very  same  Ulyanoff  definitely  puts  the  question  of  an 
immediate  uprising,  and  says  that  procrastination  in  this  matter  is 
equivalent  to  death. 

Simultaneously  with  these  appeals,  a  series  of  statements  were 
issued  by  other  leaders  of  the  Bolsheviki  at  a  number  of  meetings  at 
which  they  called  for  an  immediate  armed  uprising.  In  this  respect, 
especially  noteworthy  are  the  speeches  made  by  the  President  of  the 
Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  of  Petrograd,  Mr. 
Bronstein-Trotzky,  and  by  some  other  organizers  of  the  revolt.  The 
same  kind  of  proclamations  and  appeals,  with  the  added  appeal  to 
disobey  the  military  authorities,  appeared  in  another  party  publication 
printed  especially  for  the  soldiers  and  supposed  to  counteract  the 
'pernicious'  influence  of  the  paper  'The  Voice  of  the  Soldier,'  issued 


The  Democratic  Conference  ami  Preliminary  Parliament        19] 


by  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Councils — I  refer  to  the  newspaper 
'Soldier.' 

It  is  very  typical,  very  significant,  that — and  the  Members  of  the 
Preliminary  Parliament  will  please  note — according  to  the  admission 
made  by  the  organizer  of  the  revolt,  Ulyanoff-Lenine.  the  position  of 
the  Russian  extreme  left  wing  of  the  Social-Democratic  Party  is 
especially  favorable.  Just  think  of  it:  (Here  Kerensky  reads)  "The 
Germans  have  only  one  Liebknecht,  no  newspapers,  no  freedom  of 
assemblage,  no  councils;  they  are  working  against  the  intense  hostility 
of  all  classes  of  the  population,  including  the  wealthy  peasants. — with 
the  imperialist  bourgeoisie  splendidly  organized. — and  yet  the  Germans 
are  making  some  attempts  at  agitation;  while  we,  with  tens  of  papers, 
with  freedom  of  assemblage,  with  the  majority  of  the  Council  with  us, 
we.  the  best  situated  of  all  the  proletarian  internationalists,  can  we 
refuse  to  support  the  German  revolutionists  in  organizing  a  revolt?' 

Thus  the  organizers  themselves  admit — I  consider  this  very  im- 
portant— that  the  political  conditions  for  the  free  activities  of  every 
political  party  are  most  perfect  at  present  in  Russia  under  the  Pro- 
visional Government,  at  the  head  of  which  there  is,  in  the  opinion  of 
that  party,  a  usurper,  a  man  who  has  sold  himself  to  the  bourgeoisie, 
the  Minister  Kerensky.  I  consider  it  necessary  to  point  this  out  so 
that  everybody  may  know  clearly  that  in  organizing  a  revolt  under 
those  conditions  under  which  the  German  proletariat  exists,  that  por- 
tion of  the  proletariat  which  is  in  sympathy  with  Lenine,  which  is  not 
recognized  by  the  entire  country  from  the  capitalists  down  to  the 
peasants,  which  is  not  in  a  position  to  organize  the  movement,  to 
prepare  and  direct  the  uprising,  that  is  to  disorganize  the  fighting 
capacity  and  the  vitality  of  the  country,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
— (Voices  from  the  Right:  "Consciously!")  these  organizers  of  the 
uprising  do  not  help  the  proletariat  of  Germany,  thev  only  play  into 
the  hands  of  the  ruling  classes  of  Germany  and  expose  the  Russian 
front  to  "theTmailed  fist  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm  andjiis  friends.  (Pro- 
longed applause  from  the  Right,  Center  and  partly  from  the  Left.)  It 
is  immaterial  to  the  Provisional  Government  whether  this  is  being 
done  deliberately  or  unconsciously,  but  at  any  rate,  on  this  platform, 
fully  realizing  my  responsibility,  I  accuse  this  political  Party  of 
treachery  to  the  Russian  State.  In  addition,  I  must  say  that  attempts 
to  undermine  the  organized  movement  of  the  free  Russian  people 
towards  the  Constituent  Assembly  are  being  made  now,  at  the  moment 
when  the  Provisional  Government,  after  a  whole  series  of  preliminary 
measures,  is  considering,  in  its  final  form,  the  question  regarding  the 
temporary  transfer  of  all  land  to  the  Land  Committees  until  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly  is  convoked,  (Applause .  from  the  Left  and  the 
Center)  at  the  time  when,  fulfilling  the  obligations  it  took  upon 
itself,  and  in  accordance  with  its  convictions,  despite  all  the  difficulties 
that  are   being  put   before   the    Provisional   Government   in   its   inter- 


492  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


national  policy,  due  to  the  continued  disorganization  and  demoraliza- 
tion of  the  Army  aided  by  some  advocates  of  immediate  peace,  the 
Provisional  Government  has  been  planning  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days  to  send  its  delegation  to  the  Paris  Conference  in  order  to  put 
the  question  and  call  the  attention  of  the  Allies  to  the  necessity  for 
decisively  and  definitely  formulating  the  aims  and  problems  of  the 
war,  and  to  the  question  of  bringing  a  speedy  end  to  it,  i.  e.,  the 
question  of  peace.     (Applause  from  the  Left  and  from  the  Center.) 

If  you  will  take  into  consideration  that  all  this  is  happening  less 
than  three  weeks  before  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
that  is,  three  weeks  before  the  moment  when  the  main  obligation  of 
the  Provisional  Government  and  of  the  Revolutionary  Democracy — 
the  obligation  mutually  undertaken  on  the  12th  of  March — to  lead 
the  country  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  one  authorized  organ 
for  expressing  the  people's  will, — if  you  will  consider  that  the  attempt 
to  overthrow  the  existing  form  of  government  is  being  made  three 
weeks  before  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  yOU  will  see 
what  are  the  actual  aims  and  motives  of  the  real  enemies  of  the 
people  and  the  enemies  of  Russian  liberty.     (Applause  in  the  Center.) 

Thus,  after  this  kind  of  open  preliminary  activities  and  revolu- 
tionary propaganda,  the  said  group,  calling  itself  Bolsheviki,  has 
started  carrying  its  propaganda  into  action.  For  instance,  three  days 
ago  the  troops  of  the  Petrograd  District  received  circulars  ordering 
them  not  to  obey  their  officers  or  any  military  authorities  unless  the 
orders  received  bore  the  signature  of  the  commissaries  of  the  Petro- 
grad Revolutionary  Staff.  This  was  done  at  a  time  when  there  were 
in  the  Army  and  in  the  Petrograd  garrison  commissaries  with  their 
assistants,  appointed  by  the  Provisional  Government,  and  with  the 
approval  of  the  Executive  Committee.  The  military  authorities  could 
not  recognize  this  action.  Moreover,  they  considered  this  act  of  the 
revolutionary  staff  criminal,  (Voices  from  the  Right:  "Correct!")  and 
they  therefore  immediately  demanded  that  this  order  be  rescinded  and 
that  the  offenders  recognize  that  no  one  may  give  orders  to  the  troops 
except  the  legally  appointed  authorities,  and  that  the  commissaries  of 
the  Provisional  Government,  whose  duty  it  is  to  supervise  the  political 
acts  of  the  military  officers,  be  informed  about  it. 

I  must  say  that  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Councils  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates  has  also  taken  the  same  stand  on  the 
question,  considering  this  act  of  the  revolutionary  staff  impermissible, 
but  even  here  the  military  authorities,  following  my  directions, 
although  there  was  every  reason  for  immediate,  decisive  and  energetic 
action,  thought  it  necessary  to  first  give  these  people  an  opportunity  to 
admit  their  voluntary  or  involuntary  mistake,  and  gave  them  time  to 
deliberately  and  freely  retract  their  statements  if  there  were  a  mistake. 
I  generally  prefer  that  the  authorities  act  slowly  but  surely,  and  when 
necessary  in  a  decisive  manner."  (Applause  from  the  Left.  Shouts  of 
approval  from  the  Right.) 


The  Democratic  Conference  and  Preliminary  Parliament       493 


Notwithstanding  all  the  attempts  to  prevent  the  open  uprising 
with  all  its  consequences  menacing  not  the  leaders,  who  are  accus- 
tomed to  and  who  have  a  wonderful  capacity  for  hiding  themselves, 
(Applause  from  the  Right.)  but  the  masses  they  are  leading,  who  will 
have  to  shoulder  the  full  responsibility;  despite  much  talking,  all 
the  persuading  and  offers  by  one  social  organization  after  another, 
and  especially  the  very  convincing  statement  made  here  yesterday 
by  the  delegates  from  the  front,  we  did  not  receive,  on  the  appointed 
date,  any  statement  regarding  the  withdrawal  of  the  order  given.  We 
were  informed  at  three  o'clock  at  night,  that  all  the  points  which 
the  military  authorities  presented  as  an  ultimatum  were  as  a  matter 
of  principle  acceptable.  Thus,  at  3  A.  M.,  the  instigators  of  the 
insurrection  were  compelled  to  formally  admit  that  they  had  commit- 
ted a-n  illegal  act  which  they  wish  to  retract."  (Miliukoff  from  his 
seat:   "Quite   original!") 

But  as  I  expected  and  as  I  was  sure,  judging  from  the  past  policy 
of  this  group,  this  was  a  deliberate  lie  calculated  to  gain  time.  The 
time  set  for  this  purpose  has  passed,  and  we  have  not  observed  the 
condition  which  was  supposed  to  be  created  among  the  troops,  but 
we  notice  a  contrary  movement — namely,  the  unauthorized  distribution 
of  cartridges  and  ammunition  and  also  the  calling  out  of  two  divisions 
to  help  this  revolutionary  staff.  Thus,  before  the  Preliminary  Par- 
liament I  must  state  that  a  certain  part  of  the  population  of  Petrograd 
is  now  in  a  state  of  insurrection.  (Remarks  from  the  Right:  "Is  that 
what  we  have  come  to!")  I  have  already  proposed  that  a  judicial 
investigation  be  started  at  once.  (A  noise.)  I  have  ordered  that 
arrests  be  made."  (Disturbance  on  the  extreme  Left.) 


CHAPTER  XVII 
Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki 

THE  Preliminary  Parliament  answered  Kerensky's  last 
appeal  by  a  vote  of  confidence  passed  by  the  small  ma- 
jority of  123  to  102,  with  twenty-six  members  refraining 
from  voting  and  many  absent.  The  Bolsheviki  coup  d'etat 
was  approaching,  and  on  November  7,  1917  the  Petrograd 
garrison,  in  part  joining  the  Bolsheviki  and  in  part  indifferent, 
worn  out  by  the  continued  political  restlessness,  made  it  pos- 
sible for  the  Bolshevist  organization,  the  Military-Revolution- 
ary Committee,  to  occupy  the  main  governmental  buildings 
and  to  arrest  the  members  of  the  Provisional  Government  in 
the  Winter  Palace.  A.  F.  Kerensky,  escaping  arrest,  tried  to 
organize  the  loyal  forces  against  the  Bolsheviki  but,  supported 
only  by  a  few  Cossack  regiments,  almost  without  any  sup- 
plies, could  not  succeed  against  the  many  Bolsheviki  regi- 
ments with  unlimited  supplies  of  ammunition  from  Petrograd. 

The  Provisional  Government  was  overthrown.  The  Bolshe- 
viki organized  their  own  Cabinet,  with  Nicholas  Lenine  as 
Premier  and  Leon  Trotsky — Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
inevitability  of  their  coming  to  power  became  evident  almost 
immediately  after  the  March  Revolution.  The  history 
of  the  Bolsheviki,  after  the  Revolution,  was  a  history  oi 
their  steady  growth.  "When  Lenine  appeared  in  Russia  in 
March,  1917,  it  seemed  that  he,  with  his  extravagant  ideas, 
had  hardly  any  following  in  the  country.  The  situation  has 
changed  since  then.  At  the  time  of  the  revolt,  in  November, 
the  Bolsheviki  controlled  the  Petrograd,  Moscow  and  many 
provincial  Councils  of  "Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates. 
Their  growth  can  be  well  explained  by  the  difficult  economic 
and  cultural  conditions  in  which  the  country  found  itself 
immediately  after  the  Revolution. 

The  term,  Bolsheviki,  was  used  for  the  first  time  in  1903, 
when  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Party  split  in  two,  and 
the  majority,  led  by  Lenine.  adopted'  this  name.*     Until  the 


*The  term  "Bolsheviki"  is  derived  from  the  Russian  word  "bolshinstvo." 
which  means  "the  majority." 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  495 

present  war  the  Bolsheviki  represented  a  part  of  the  Russian 
Social-Democratic  Party  and  were  recognized  as  S  cialists  of 
the  Marxian  school,  differing-  from  other  Social-Democrats 
only  on  questions  of  tactics. 

The  war  has  changed  Lenine  and  his  following  remarkably. 
When  Lenine  arrived  in  Petrograd,  in  March.  1917,  and  made 
his  first  speech,  one  of  the  prominent  Russian  S  icialists  told 
him  that  the  point  of  view  he,  Lenine,  represents,  has  nothing 
to  do  with  Socialism,  and  is  a  pure  expression  of  anarchistic 
ideology.  This  really  describes  "Bolshevism,"  and  explains 
its  power  in  Russia.  The  Bolsheviki  are  anarchists,  not  so 
mush  in  theory  as  in  their  political  practice.  The  ground  for 
anarchy  was  fertile  in  Russia,  and  herein  lay  the  success  of 
the  Bolsheviki. 

The  sufferings  of  all  the  countries  involved  in  the  present 
conflict  are  enormous,  but  probably  it  is  safe  to  say  that,  aside 
from  Belgium,  no  country  has  suffered  so  much  as  Russia. 
To  the  sufferings  usually  imposed  by  war  were  added  the 
terrible  crimes  of  the  old  regime.  If  monarchy  in  Russia  had 
died  thirteen  years  ago,  during  the  first  Revolution,  it  would 
have  been  a  natural  death,  and  both  sides  would  have  gained 
by  it.  The  monarchic  system  decaying,  during  the  past  two 
decades,  poisoned  all  the  atmosphere  around  it. 

The  old  regime,  having  degenerated  to  such  figures  as 
S  lukhomlinoff,  Rasputin  and  Protopopoff,  came  to  an  end. 
leaving  the  country  in  a  state  of  such  disorganization  that  no 
government  in  the  world  could  have  guided  it  through  the 
enormous  difficulties  better  than  the  Provisional  Government 
did.  The  disorganization  of  transportation  brought  hunger 
and  cold  to  the  Russian  cities  and  created  an  atmosphere  in 
which  every  kind  of  anarchistic  agitation  could  be  successful. 
Lenine  and  his  followers,  with  their  slogan  of  immediate  peace, 
with  their  hatred  for  the  wealthy  classes,  with  their  plans  for 
the  dictatorship  of  the  laboring  class,  naturally  could  appeal 
more  to  the  suffering,  comparatively  uneducated  Russian 
masses,  already  exhausted  by  the  war  and  the  crimes  com- 
mitted against  them  by  the  old  regime,  than  the  arguments  of 
Socialist  leaders  like  Kerensky  and   Tseretelli,  who  appealed 


496  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

to  the  masses  to  stay  in  the  war,  and,  if  necessary,  suffer  more 
and  more  for  the  freedom  of  the  country  and  the  great  cause 
of  the  world's  Democracy. 

The  responsible  leaders  of  the  Russian  Democracy  saw 
clearly  that  the  Bolsheviki  would  bring  Russia  not  to  an  im- 
mediate, general,  democratic  peace,  but  to  a  shameful  separate 
peace  which  would  deprive  Russia  of  her  best  territories  and 
lay  open  the  Western  Democracies  to  an  immediate  German 
offensive.  They  were  able  to  foresee  what  Germany  would  do 
to  Russia  helpless  because  of  the  disintegration  of  her  Army, 
and  to  the  Allies  by  bringing  to  the  West  most  of  the  hundred 
forty-seven  German  and  Austrian  divisions,  about  two  and  a 
half  million  men,  held  on  the  Russian  front  up  to  the  moment 
of  the  Bolsheviki  revolt.  They  could  foresee  that  the  Bolshe- 
viki rule  would  bring  Russia  and  the  newly-won  liberty  to 
ruin,  but,  unfortunately,  they  could  not  prevent  it. 

In  the  Russian  Revolution  of  1917  the  Bolsheviki  have 
played  the  same  fatal  role  they  played  in  the  Resolution  of 
1905.  Thirteen  years  ago,  the  Russian  people,  after  the  un- 
fortunate war  with  Japan,  made  the  first  attack  upon  the 
old  autocratic  Government.  There  were  moments  then  when 
it  seemed  as  if  final  victory  would  rest  with  the  people.  Such 
a  moment  was  that  of  October  30,  1905,  when  the  Tzar,  in  a 
solemn  Manifesto,  granted  political  freedom  to  the  people 
and  promised  that  in  the  future  no  law  would  be  forced  on 
Russia  without  the  consent  of  the  Duma.  Another  such  mo- 
ment was  when  the  First  Duma,  in  May,  1906,  presented  the 
Tzar  with  an  address  demanding  liberal  reforms  and  the  crea- 
tion of  a  responsible  cabinet.  The  old  Government  tottered 
then,  and  opened  parleys  with  the  leaders  of  the  Duma  through 
General  Trepov. 

It  is  probable  that  if  the  first  Russian  Revolution  had  been 
successful,  and  Russia  had  become  a  free  country  in  1905, 
then,  nine  years  later,  in  1914,  free  Russia  would  have  been  so 
strong,  and  the  union  of  free  Russia  with  the  democracies  of 
France  and  England  would  have  appeared  so  natural,  that 
the  German  militarists  would  have  hesitated  long  before  trying 
to  fight  such  a  powerful  combination. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  497 

Unfortunately  two  factors  destroyed  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion of  1905.  First,  the  ruling  class,  which  did  not  understand 
the  signs  of  the  time,  did  not  understand  the  necessity  for 
making  sincere  concessions  to  the  people.  The  second  factor 
which  destroyed  the  Revolution  of  1905  was  the  Bolsheviki. 
Lenine  then,  as  now,  was  their  leader.  While  the  Revolution 
could  succeed  only  as  a  national  revolution,  through  the  unity 
of  all  of  Russia's  progressive  forces,  Lenine,  in  1905,  did  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  destroy  the  united  front  of  the  Russian 
Democracy.  Under  his  influence  the  Socialist  factions  boy- 
cotted the  elections  to  the  First  Duma.  When  the  Duma  was 
convoked,  with  the  Constitutional-Democrats  in  control,  the 
Bolsheviki  did  everything  to  discredit  the  Duma  as  a  "bour- 
geois"  institution.  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  was  at  the 
moment  when  the  Duma,  in  the  name  of  the  people,  had  pre- 
sented the  Tzar's  Government  with  demands  for  liberal  re- 
forms and  a  responsible  cabinet.  The  old  bureacracy  got  a 
great  deak  of  comfort  from  the  Bolsheviki's  attacks  on  the 
Duma  at  that  critical  moment. 

Posing  as  extreme  revolutionists,  the  Bolsheviki,  in  1905, 
destroyed  the  Russian  Revolution  by  breaking  up  the  unity 
of  the  progressive  forces  in  the  country.  Trotsky  did  not 
formally  belong  to  the  Bolsheviki  then,  but  his  superficial  mind 
had  then  already  formulated  the  theory  of  a  "permanent  revo- 
lution," a  theory  typical  of  a  fanatic,  so  concentrated  on  his 
one  aim  that  he  cannot  see  anything  outside  it. 

The  activities  of  the  Bolsheviki  in  the  period  of  the  dark- 
reaction,  between  the  first  and  the  second  Revolution,  were 
very  much  along  these  same  lines.  Among  the  most  promi- 
nent leaders  of  the  Bolsheviki,  during  this  period,  was  Roman 
Malinovsky,  a  deputy  of  the  Fourth  Duma.  While  there  was 
a  steady  endeavor  to  unite  all  the  progressive  forces  of  Russia 
in  the  demand  for  liberal  reforms,  Malinovsky  was  making 
one  speech  after  another,  accusing,  in  the  name  of  the  prole- 
tariat, all  the  liberal  factions  of  the  Duma.  His  hatred  for  the 
"bourgeoisie"  was  such  a  passion  that  he  found  "bourgeoisie" 
even  in  the  Social-Democratic  Faction  of  the  Duma,  which  he 
led.     There  were  then  thirteen  Social-Democratic  deputies  in 


498  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

the   Duma,   and   Malinovsky   split   this   little    faction   in   two, 
leading  the  Bolsheviki  part  of  it,  six  in  number. 

The  finale  of  this  story  was  most  unexpected.  Mr.  Malinov- 
sky, the  uncompromising  leader  of  the  proletariat,  it  was  dis- 
covered, was  a  secret  agent  of  the  Tzar's  Police  Department, 
and  all  his  speeches  against  the  "bourgeoisie"  had  been  pre- 
pared in  the  Department  of  Police,  by  the  former  Director 
of  the  Department,  Mr.  Beletzky.  It  is  interesting  to  add 
that  Malinovsky  was  a  personal  friend  of  Lenine,  who  called 
him  "the  Russian  Rebel"  and  had  proposed  him  for  member- 
ship in  the  International  Socialist  Bureau.  Were  it  not  for  the 
discovery  that  Malinovsky  was  a  secret  agent  of  the  Tzar's 
Government,  this  gentleman,  through  Lenine's  recommenda- 
tion, would  have  sat  in  the  Bureau  with  Jaurez  and  Vander- 
velde. 

Posing  as  ultra-revolutionists,  the  Bolsheviki,  helped,  know- 
ingly or  unknowingly,  the  Russian  autocracy  in  her  fight 
against  Russian  democracy.  Posing  later  as  ultra-pacifists, 
the  Bolsheviki  helped,  de  facto,  the  German  militarists,  and, 
by  destroying  the  Russian  Army,  have  betrayed  Russia  and 
prolonged  the  terrible  struggle,  probably,  for  several  years. 

Nicholas  Lenine  and  his  following  is  only  a  shadow  of 
Nicholas  Romanoff  and  his  regime.  The  tyranny  reestablished 
in  Russia  by  the  new  Nicholas  III  is  probably  worse  than 
the  tyranny  of  Nicholas  II.  While  proclaiming  that  they 
revolted  against  the  "tyrannic  regime"  of  Kerensky,  the 
Bolsheviki,  themselves,  have  established  a  tyranny  unknown 
even  under  the  Tzar's  Government.  They  have  suppressed  the 
liberal  and.  partially,  the  Socialist  press.  They  have  arrested 
prominent  liberal  and  revolutionary  leaders, — among  the  lat- 
ter such  men  as  Bourtzev  and  Avksentiev, — they  have  dis- 
solved the  municipal  councils  of  Petrograd,  Moscow,  Nizhni- 
Novgorod  and  other  cities,  the  councils  elected  by  the  entire 
population  of  the  cities,  according  to  the  new  law  of  universal 
suffrage. 

Even  the  Tzar's  Government  respected  the  principle  of 
parliamentary  immunity,  and  although  many  of  the  members 
of  the  First  Duma  and  the  members  of  the  Social-Democratic 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolshevist  499 


Faction  of  the  Second  Duma  were  arrested  by  the  Govern- 
ment, they  were  arrested  after  the  Dumas  had  been  legiti- 
mately dissolved.  When  the  Tzar's  Government  dared  to 
arrest  and  try  five  Socialist  members  of  the  Fourth  Duma, 
while  the  Duma  was  still  sitting,  there  was  an  outcry  of 
indignation  in  the  country  and  bitter  feeling  against  the  Gov- 
ernment even  among  the  conservative  elements. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  free  from  any  kind  o'f  "sentimentality." 
They  have  adopted  the  German  motto  "Might  is  Right." 
They  dared  to  declare,  with  unprecedented  cynicism,  that  the 
Constituent  Assembly,  the  realization  of  the  sacred  hope  of 
generations  of  Russian  revolutionists  who  have  died  for 'it  in 
prison  cells,  in  fortresses  and  in  the  tundras  of  Siberia,  that 
the  Constituent  Assembly  would  be  "illegal"  if  the  majority 
proved  to  be  against  the  Bolsheviki.  They  knew  that  the 
majority  of  the  Assembly  would  assuredly  be  against  them, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  used,  during  the  elections,  every 
means  to  terrorize  the  Russian  citizens  and  to  falsify  their 
will.  They  knew  that  the  unfortunate  country,  prostrated  by 
the  three  and  a  half  years  of  bleeding  and  by  the  terrible 
crimes  committed  against  her,  would  never  surrender  to  the 
Bolsheviki  and  would  fight  them  through  her  legitimate  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Therefore,  they  pre- 
vented the  meetings  of  the  Assembly  by  armed  force,  arrested 
such  prominent  members  of  the  Assembly  as  Prince  P.  D. 
Dolgorukov,  F.  F.  Kokoshkin  and  A.  I.  Shingariev,*  and  finally 
dispersed  the  Assembly  with  bayonets. 

The  foreign  policy  of  the  Bolsheviki  brought  Russia  to  the 
Brest-Litovsk  "peace,"  according  to  which  Russia  lost  780.000 
square  kilometers  of  territory,  with  56.000,000  inhabitants,  or 
over  30  per  cent,  of  her  entire  population.  She  lost  one-third 
of  her  total  mileage  of  railways,  amounting  to  21.530  kilo- 
meters   (13,350   miles),   seventy-three   per   cent,    of   her   total 


*F.  F.  Kokoshkin  and  A.  I.  Shing-ariev  were  shot  by  the  Red  Guards  in 
the  Naval  Hospital  in  Petrograd  immediately  after  the  dispersing  of  the 
Constituent   Assembly. 


500  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

iron   production   and   eighty-nine   per  cent,   of   her   total   coal 
production.* 

The  internal  policy  of  the  Bolsheviki  resulted,  as  might  have 
been  foreseen,  in  the  utmost  disorganization  of  the  country's 
industries,  transportation  and  finance.  The  terrorizing  of 
the  industrial  class,  and  the  "workingmen's  control"  estab- 
lished in  the  factories  destroyed  even  the  best  established 
industrial  enterprises.  The  output  of  raw  materials  and  fuel 
steadily  decreased  and  this,  together  with  the  utmost  dis- 
organization of  transportation,!  has  stopped  the  work  of  even 
those  industrial  enterprises  where  the  workingmen  were 
anxious  to  continue  working.  What  is  left  of  the  country  after 
the  Brest- Litovsk  treaty  is  divided  practically  into  tens  of  sepa- 
rate states,  isolated  from  one  another.  Hunger  rages  through 
entire  provinces,  epidemics  are  appearing  here  and  there, 
menacing,  under  the  present  conditions,  the  existence  of 
millions. 

However,  all  this  does  not  mean  that  Russia  is  dead.  It 
only  means  that  the  unfortunate  country,  after  sacrificing 
millions  of  lives  in  war  with  Germany,  must  sacrifice  further 
millions  in  her  internal  crisis  and  reconstruction.  Russia's 
fate  is  not  yet  decided.  It  depends  upon  the  material  help  she 
will  get  from  the  Allies  at  this  critical  moment  and  upon  the 
outcome  of  the  war.  If  Russia  will  be  saved  from  foreign 
domination,  she  will  finally  find  in  herself  sufficient  strength 
to  organize  herself  in  a  stable  Democracy,  the  existence  of 
which  will  prove  a  blessing  to  the  entire  world. 


*In  addition  Russia  lost  268  sugar  refineries,  918  textile  factories,  574 
breweries,  133  tobacco  factories,  1,685  distilleries,  244  chemical  factories, 
615  paper  mills  and  1,073  machine  factories.  These  data  were  mad°  public 
by  the  Bolshevist  Commissaire  of  Commerce  and  were  transmitted  to  this 
country  in  an  Associated  Press  dispatch  from  Petrograd  on  April  10,   1918. 

tAccording-  to  Louis  Edgar  Browne's  cable  from  Petrograd,  on  April  4, 
1918,  to  the  New  York  "Globe,"  the  decrease  of  efficiency  in  the  Russian 
railroads  has  been  especially  striking  since  October,  1'917.  In  that  month 
it  dropped  34  per  cent.,  in  November — 45  per  cent.,  in  December — 70  per 
cent.,  and  in  January — 80  per  cent.  Mr.  Browne  mentions  that  he  quotes 
the  official  Russian  statistics. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  501 

IT  may  be  stated  that  in  November,  1917,  at  the  moment 
of  the  revolt,  the  Bolsheviki  had  arrayed  against  them 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Russian  people,  ni  it 
only  the  middle-class,  but  the  Revolutionary  Democracy  as 
well.  The  Bolsheviki  were  able  to  seize  the  governmental 
power,  with  the  help  of  comparatively  small  detachments  of 
soldiers  and  sailors,  only  because  their  opponents  were  passive 
and  the  country  in  general  tired,  worn  out  and  temporarily 
indifferent  to  almost  any  political  changes. 

The  Bolsheviki  like  to  pose  as  the  representatives  of  the 
laboring  masses.  But,  the  Russian  peasantry,  which  repre- 
sents about  85  per  cent,  of  Russia's  entire  population  and 
consists,  almost  without  exception,  of  tillers  of  the  soil,  re- 
pudiated the  Bolsheviki  at  the  very  moment  of  their  revolt, 
repudiated  them  later  through  the  Constituent  Assembly,  and 
continues  to  repudiate  them. 

On  November  2,  1917.  that  is.  five  days  before  the  Bolshe- 
viki revolt,  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian 
Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  issued  the  following  manifesto : 

"Comrades,  brothers  in  suffering  and  travail,  workers  and  soldiers! 

People  who  do  not  realize  sufficiently  well  the  consequences  of 
their  actions,  and  the  dark  forces,  pursuing  their  own  criminal  ends, 
call  upon  you  to  go  out  into  the  street  and  by  force  of  arms  over- 
throw the  Provisional  Government  and  usurp  governmental  power. 
These  people  are  not  satisfied  with  the  eight  hundred  innocent  victims, 
of  the  civilian  population,  the  fathers  and  mothers  who  perished  reck- 
lessly and  uselessly  in  the  days  of  the  first  demonstration,  on  July 
16-18.  These  victims  have  not  yet  been  forgotten  by  their  relatives. 
The  mothers  who  lost  their  children  and  the  children  who  lost  their 
parents  in  those  days  of  terror  and  insanity  have  not  yet  ceased  de- 
ploring their  losses.  And  now  they  are  preparing  for  us  another 
civil  war,  just  as  senseless  and  mad  as  the  first  one. 

And  all  this  is  being  done  only  a  little  over  a  month  before  the 
opening  of  the  All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly,  which  alone  will 
have  the  right  to  solve  the  question  of  government,  for  its  members 
will  be  elected  by  the  entire  population,  both  men  and  women,  in  the 
most  democratic  way,  and  will  therefore  represent  the  true  voice  and 
will  of  the  Russian  people. 

You  are  being  called  upon  to  take  part  in  a  civil  war  at  a  moment 
when  the  true  fighters  for  Land  and  Liberty,  for  the  freedom  and 
happiness  of  the  laboring  masses,  should  not  be  losing  time,  but  be 


502  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


even  now  taking  a  most  active  part  in  the  electoral  campaign  for  the 
purpose  of  sending  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  genuine  champions  of  the  interests  of  labor.  You  are 
called  upon  to  wage  civil  war  at  a  time  when  the  cruel  foe  is  con- 
stantly tearing  off  new  portions  of  our  land,  is  threatening  our  Cap- 
iral,  menacing  our  liberty  and  all  that  which  the  toilers  have  already 
won  and  that  which  they  are  bound  to  win  in  the  near  future,  while 
millions  of  our  brothers  in  German  captivity  are  being  starved  to 
death  or  exhausted  by  hard  labor,  their  bones  covering  all  Germany. 
Instead  of  calling  you  to  defend  your  country  against  the  hordes 
of  the  German  Emperor,  who  are  destroying  our  soldiers,  like  insects, 
with  asphyxiating  gases,  who  are  employing  every  device  invented  by 
man  for  the  destruction  of  his  kind  against  those  who  are  defending 
our  country;  instead  of  calling  you  to  defend  yourself  against  the 
enemy,  at  the  head  of  whose  forces  you  find  Kaiser  Wilhelm  and  the 
Russian  landed  aristocrats — the  greatest  enemies  of  all  liberty;  in- 
stead of  calling  you  to  defend  all  the  rights  of  the  laboring  masses  of 
all  countries,  instead  of  this,  you  are  called  upon  to  fight  your  own 
brothers. 

One  may  make  all  kinds  of  sacrifices  in  the  defense  of  the  working- 
men  and  the  oppressed,  but  what  useful  purpose  will  this  bloodshed 
serve,  of  what  avail  will  these  sacrifices  be!  Russia  is  now  the  most 
democratic  country  in  the  world.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  power  is 
now  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  in  the  ranks  of  the  Provisional 
Government  we  see  people  who  have  proven  their  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  the  working  people  through  the  long  years  spent  in  prison 
and  in  exile,  during  the  Tzar's  regime. 

If  we  allow  the  usurpation  of  power,  in  Petrograd  by  force,  we 
set  a  precedent  for  all  those  who  will  have  the  opportunity  to  do  like- 
wise in  other  parts  of  the  country.  There  is  the  danger  that  in  some 
sections  the  adherents  of  the  old  regime,  the  opponents  of  "Land  and 
Freedom,"  will  be  stronger,  and  then  our  country,  torn  asunder  by 
civil  strife  and  anarchy,  and  stripped  of  parts  by  the  foreign  foe, 
will  face  disruption. 

Comrades,  brothers,  workmen  and  soldiers  !  In  the  name  of  the 
many  millions  of  peasants  throughout  the  country,  we  appeal  to  you 
not  to  yield  to  the  thoughtless  and  criminal  agitation  which  will  be 
merely  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  of  the  laboring  class  and 
the  enemy  of  the  country,  who  will  take  advantage  of  our  civil  war. 
We  appeal  to  you  not  to  start  this  fratricidal  war,  not  to  shed  the 
blood  of  innocent  people,  but  to  save  your  strength  for  the  struggle 
against  the  foreign  foe,  and  to  leave  it  to  the  Constituent  Assembly 
to  decide  the  question  of  government. 

The  country  demands  this  of  you;  this  is  the  demand  that  would 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  503 

emanate  from  a  correct  understanding  of  the  interests  of  the  work- 
ingmen    and    peasants. 

Remember  your  responsibility  to  the  country,  to  the  toilers  who 
may  lose  the  land  in  civil  strife,  remember  your  duty  to  those  who 
are  dearest  to  you,  remember  your  duties  to  your  own  conscience 
and  to  the  future  generations." 

On  November  8,  immediately  after  the  Bolsheviki  revolt, 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Peas- 
ants' Delegates  issued  another  manifesto: 

"Comrades!  All  the  liberties  secured  at  the  expense  of  the  blood 
of  your  sons  and  your  brothers  are  now  in  great,  mortal  danger! 

The  Revolution  is  perishing!    The  country  is  on  the  verge  of  ruin! 

The  blood  of  our  brothers  has  again  been  shed  on  the  streets  of 
Petrograd.  Again  the  entire  country  is  thrown  into  the  abyss  of  dis- 
cord and  disruption.  Again  the  Army,  which  has  been  defending  the 
country  and  the  Revolution  from  the  foreign  foe,  is  being  stabbed  in 
the  back. 

On  the  7th  of  November  the  Bolshevik  faction  of  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic Party  and  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers' 
Delegates,  under  the  guidance  of  that  faction,  usurped  power,  and 
after  having  subjected  the  Winter  Palace  to  a  fusillade,  they  have  ar- 
rested the  Provisional  Government  and  the  Socialist  Ministers, 
among  them  two  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All- 
Russian 'Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates,  S.  L.  Maslov  and  S.  S.  Salaz- 
kin,  thrust  them  into  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul,  and  dis- 
banded by  armed  force  the  Preliminary  Parliament  elected  to  super- 
vise the  work  of  the  Provisional  Government  until  the  Constituent 
Assembly  convenes.  Finally,  they  have  declared  A.  F.  Kerensky,  the 
Prime  Minister  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army,  an  offender 
against  the  State. 

Innumerable  are  the  disasters  which  this  outbreak  spells  for 
Russia,  formidable  is  the  crime  against  the  people  and  the  Revolution 
on  the  part  of  those  who  have  started  the  uprising  and  sown  discord 
in  the  country.  In  the  first  place,  they  are  causing  a  split  in  the 
ranks  of  the  working  people  and  are  thus  facilitating  for  the  foreign 
foe  the  work  of  completely  devastating  and  enslaving  our  country. 

The  blow  they  have  dealt  the  Army  is  the  first  and  the  gra\  -st 
crime   of  the  Bolsheviki. 

Their  second  crime  consists  in  starting  a  civil  war  and  usurping 
power  at  the  very  moment  when  the  Provisional  Government,  obeying 
the  will  of  the  peasants,  was  completing  the  draft  of  the  law  regard- 
ing the  transfer  of  all  land  to  the  land  committees.,  and  at  a  time 
when  only  three  weeks  remained  before  the  convocation  of  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  the  only  authorized  ruling  body  of  Russia.  They 
are  deceiving  the  country  by  calling  the  Congress  of  Councils  in  Petro- 


504  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


grad,  the  voice  of  the  entire  people;  the  voice  of  the  Democracy, 
despite  the  fact  that  all  the  representatives  from  the  Front,  from  the 
Socialist  parties  and  from  the  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates  have 
left  it.  Taking  advantage  of  the  presence  of  a  few  peasants  who 
came  to  the  Congress  in  violation  of  the  decision  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  and  of 
the  provincial  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates,  they  have  the  audacity 
to  tell  us  that  they  have  the  support  of  the  Councils  of  Peasants' 
Delegates.  Without  any  authority  they  dare  to  speak  in  the  name 
of  the  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates.  Let  all  the  laboring  masses 
of  Russia  know  that  this  is  a  lie,  and  that  all  the  peasants,  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants'  Dele- 
gates, indignantly  repudiate  all  claims  regarding  the  participation 
of  the  organized  peasantry  in  this  criminal  violation  of  the  will  of  the 
working  people. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  promising  the  people  immediate  peace,  breed, 
land  and  liberty.  What  a  lie  and  a  sham — 'all  these  promises  tabu- 
lated to  win  the  masses,  who  are  worn  out  and  do  not  understand 
clearly  the  situation!  Not  peace,  but  slavery  is  before  them.  Not 
bread,  land  and  freedom,  but  civil  war,  bloodshed,  loss  of  land  and 
the  triumph  of  the  knout  will  they  bring,  by  increasing  the  chaos  and 
making  it  easier  for  the  dark  forces  to  restore  the  accursed  regime 
of  the  Tzar. 

Believing  that  the  coup  d'etat  which  has  just  taken  place  is  men- 
acing the  country  and  the  Army  with  immediate  disaster  and  will 
delay  the  convoking  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  while  those  in 
power  are  unable  to  establish  a  government  that  will  be  recognized 
by  all  the  people,  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  All-Russian 
Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  considers  it  its  sacred  duty 
towards  the  country  to  proclaim  that  it  does  not  recognize  the  new 
Bolsheviki  rule  as  the  government  of  Russia,  and  appeals  to  the 
local  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates  and  to  the  Army  not  to  yield 
to  the  usurpers,  but  at  the  same  time  to  observe  order  and  guard  the 
country  against  the  enemy.  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  All- 
Russian  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  has  before  it  the  following 
tasks: 

1.  The  formation  of  a  government  universally  recognized  and 
capable  of  leading  the  country  to  a  state  where  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly can  be  convoked. 

2.  The  calling  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  without  changing  the 
election  laws. 

3.  The  turning  over  of  all  land  to  the  land  committees." 

The  Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revo- 
lutionists, which  may  be  considered  the  party  of  the  Russian 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  505 

peasantry,  adopted  the  following  resolution  immediately  after 
the  Bolsheviki  revolt: 

"All  those  members  of  the  Party  who  have  taken  part  in  the  Bol- 
shevist adventure  and  have  not  left  the  Congress  of  Councils  after 
the  fusillade  opened  against  the  Winter  Palace,  the  arrest  of  the 
Party  members  and  other  acts  of  violence  committed  by  the  Military- 
Revolutionary  Committee  against  the  Democracy — are  hereby  ex- 
pelled from  the  Party  for  gross  violation  of  Party  discipline." 

On  November  10,  three  days  after  the  Bolsheviki  revolt, 
the  Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists issued  the  following-  proclamation : 

"Comrades,  workingmen,  peasants,  soldiers  and  sailors! 

You  have  been  deceived  in  the  basest,  most  scoundrel-like  man- 
ner. Power  has  been  usurped  by  the  Bolsheviki  alone.  They,  tbe 
Bolsheviki,  have  misused  the  name  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of 
Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  because  they  kept  their  plan 
secret  from  the  other  Socialist  Parties  represented  in  the  Council. 

The  usurpation  of  power  has  occurred  three  weeks  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  one  day  before  the  meeting  of  the 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates. 

The  Congress  of  Councils  which,  after  its  opening,  recognized  the 
coup  d'etat  that  has  taken  place,  had  no  authority,  inasmuch  as 
the  representatives  of  all  the  Socialist  Parties  and  all  the  Delegates 
from  the  Front  had  left  it  and  there  remained  only  the  Bolsheviki 
and  the  Maximalist  faction  of  the  Socialists-Revolutionists,  who  form 
the  tail  end  of  the  Bolsheviki  movement. 

The  voice  of  the  toiling  peasantry  was  unheeded.  The  Peasants' 
Councils  refused  to  come  to  the  Congress  of  Councils  because  they 
were  busy  with  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  The  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates 
has  voiced  its  protest  against  the  madness  of  the  Bolsheviki.  The  Bol- 
sheviki have  confiscated  issue  No.  147  of  the  'News  of  the  All-Russian 
Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates,'  and  have  shut  down  the  printing 
shop,  thus  stifling  with  their  gendarme  hand  the  free  voice  of  the 
peasants. 

They  have  promised  you  bread.  But  there  will  be  no  bread.  The 
Bolsheviki  revolt  will  completely  disorganize  the  railroads,  and  the 
transportation  of  bread  has  been  attended  with  difficulties  even 
before  their  revolt. 

The  mere  fact  that  power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Bolsheviki  will 
not  produce  any  new  locomotives  or  cars,  will  not  increase  the  output 
of  coal,  and  through  the  civil  war  which  the  Bolsheviki  have  pro- 
voked on  the  eve  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  and  through  their  shat- 


506  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

tering  the  entire  apparatus  of  State,  we  shall  remain  entirely  without 
railroads  and  without  coal. 

Because  of  the  disorganization  of  the  life  of  the  State  the  banks 
are  compelled  to  suspend  their  operations.  There  will  be  no  money. 
You  will  get  no  wages  and  no  salaries. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  leading  you  to  the  point  where  the  mills  and 
factories  will  close  down,  and  unemployment,  starvation  and  death 
will    follow. 

They  have  promised  you  immediate  peace  and  they  have  given  you 
a  new  resolution  which  everybody  ignores — our  foes  as  well  as  our 
Allies.  The  foreign  Embassies  are  leaving.  The  Bolsheviki  have  put 
the  Allies  in  a  position  where  they  will  be  able  to  conclude  peace  with 
Germany  at  the  expense  of  Russia. 

They  have  promised  you  a  separate  peace,  but  instead  of  this  they 
are  giving  you  a  new  and  more  difficult  war  at  the  Front  and  a  new 
civil  war  within   the   country. 

They  have  promised  you  land  and  liberty,  but  the  counter-revolu- 
tionary forces  will  make  use  of  the  anarchy  created  by  the  Bolsheviki 
to  deprive  you  of  both  land  and  liberty. 

The  resolution  of  the  Bolsheviki  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Delegates  in  regard  to  the  usurpation  of  power  by  the  Bolshe- 
viki contains  no  mention  of  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

You  were  on  the  eve  of  the  Constituent  Assembly — the  Bolsheviki 
have  postponed  it. 

The  only  way  to  suppress  the  anarchy  and  the  counter-revolution, 
already  jubilant,  is  to  form  a  new  democratic  and  revolutionary  gov- 
ernment which  will  be  recognized  by  the  entire  country. 

Join  hands  with  the  All-Russian  Committee  for  the  Salvation  of 
the  Country  and  the  Revolution,  unite  with  the  Socialist  Parties ! 
They  will  create  a  new,  united  revolutionary  and  democratic  govern- 
ment, and  this  government  will  at  once  transfer  all  land  to  the  land 
committee,  will  offer  all  the  belligerent  countries  a  democratic  peace, 
will  suppress  the  anarchy  and  the  counter-revolution  and  will  bring 
the  country  to  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

Comrades,  workingmen,  peasants,  soldiers  and  sailors  ! 

You  have  been  deceived  in  the  basest,  most  scoundi  el-like  manner. 

Do  not  listen  to  the  Bolsheviki,  leave  that  band  alone,  and  their 
revolt  will  end  immediately,  without  any  bloodshed." 

The  most  representative  leaders  of  the  Social-Democratic 
Party,  George  Plekhanov,  I.  G.  Tseretelli,  P.  Maslov  and  even 
the  "internationalist,"  Martov,  took  the  stand  of  immediate 
and  strong  opposition  to  the  Bolshevist  adventure.  The 
Petrograd  Committee  of  the  Social-Democratic  Party  issued 
the  following  appeal: 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  507 


"Comrades,  soldiers,  workingmen,  and  fellow-citizens, — all  those 
who  are  faithful  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution: 

A  crime  has_been  committed.  The  Bolsheviki  have  misled  and 
confused  the  uninformed  masses  of  the  soldiers  and  workingmen.  At  a 
moment  of  terrible  danger  to  our  country  they  have  started  civil 
strife  and  have  raised  their  sword  against  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment established  by  the  people.  With  the  arrogance  and  rudeness 
of  the  former  Tzar's  police,  they  forced  themselves  into  the  hall  where 
the  Preliminary  Parliament  was  in  session,  took  possession  of  the 
building,  insulted  the  old,  veteran  fighters  against  the  Tzar's  regime, 
insulted  our  comrades  and  Socialists.  On  the  night  of  the  8th  of 
November  they  attacked  the  Winter  Palace  in  a  true  highway-rubber 
fashion,  brutally  slew  the  guard/doing  their  duty  by  the  people  and 
the  Republic,  and  arrested  several  members  of  the  Cabinet  responsi- 
ble to  the  people. 

In  the  face  of  the  enemy,  the  Kaiser  and  the  Black  Hundred, 
they  are  rending  our  country  and  our  liberty  into  shreds. 

They  do  this  on  the  eve  of  the  Constituent  Assembly !  They 
treacherously  thrust  their  knife  into  the  back  of  the  Army,  bleeding 
at  the  Front. 

Save  the  Revolution! 

Save  the  Republic! 

Remember,  hunger  will  crush  Petrograd,  the  German  Armies  will 
trample  upon  our  liberties,  the  Black  Hundred  will  flood  the  country 
with  massacres,  if  we,  the  politically  conscious  workmen,  soldiers  and 
citizens,  do  not  unite,  and  after  having  restored  the  Provisional 
Government  of  the   Revolution,  defend  it  with  all  our  might. 

Do  nut  trust  the  promises  of  the  Bolsheviki!  The  promise  of  an 
immediate  peace  is  a  lie, — Lenine  has  already  admitted  that.  The 
promise  of  bread  isa.,  fraud.  The  promise  of  order,  the  promise  of 
land  is  a  fairy  tale  ! 

Go  and  explain"  to  the  ignorant,  deceived  masses  that  their  mad 
revolt  brings  with  it  horror,  destruction,  decades  of  poverty  and 
slavery! 

Save  the  Republic  before  it  is  too  late!" 

While  the  elder  generations  of  the  Russian  "intelligentsia," 
active  participants  in  the  political  organizations,  expressed 
their  sentiments  regarding  the  crisis  in  the  above-given 
resolutions,  the  younger  generation  expressed  themselves 
in  the  following  appeal  signed  by  the  students  of  the 
Petrograd  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  the  Electrotechnic 
Institute,  the  Women's  Polytechnic  School,  the  College  of 
Natural  Science,  the  Women's  College  of  Philology,  the  Mili- 


508  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

tary-Medical  Academy,  the  Institute  of  History  and  Phil- 
ology, the  Academy  of  Theology,  the  Bestouzhev  University, 
the  Conservatory  of  Music,  the  Women's  Pedagogical  Insti- 
tute, the  Academy  of  Art  and  the  Institute  of  Ways  of  Com- 
munication : 

"Citizens!  People!  At  this  terrible  hour  when  the  foreign  foe  is 
menacing  the  existence  of  our  country  and  black  anarchy  is  shrouding 
Russia,  when  the  supreme  power  has  been  usurped  through  violence 
and  deceit  by  a  handful  of  adventurers,  at  this  terrible  hour  the 
students  of  Petrograd  are  appealing  to  you,  people  of  Russia. 

Enough   of   blood,   enough   of  violence   and   strife! 

Long  live  law  and  order! 

Let  us  have  peace  among  ourselves! 

The  people  are  the  only  masters  of  the  country.  The  only  body 
representative  of  the  people  is  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Now  then, 
go  to  the  elections  and  say  your  decisive  word  about  peace  and  land, 
about   the  laws  of  the  country. 

But  under  the  present  conditions,  when  despotism  and  violence  are 
reigning  supreme,  lawful  elections  are  impossible. 

A  group  of  madmen,  backed  by  the  bayonets  of  ignorant  people, 
are  stifling  freedom  of  speech.  The  press  is  muzzled.  Freedom 
of  speech  is  destroyed.  A  foul  deal  is  in  store  for  all  who  disagree 
with  the  usurpers.  And  we  who  have  always  fought  for  the  people's 
liberty,  call  upon  you  to  unite  in  defense  of  the  rights  of  citizens, 
which  are  being  trampled  upon. 

Comrades,  soldiers  and  workmen  !  Remember  that  many  of  us  died 
in  1905-1906,  together  with  you  on  the  scaffold,  in  the  dungeons,  in 
exile  and  at  the  hands  of  the  police. 

Side  by  side  with  you  we  fought,  in  March,  for  the  freedom  of  our 
people. 

Together  with  you,  on  the  Field  of  Mars,  we  paid  homage  to 
the  heroes  who  died  in  the  fight  for  liberty. 

Remember,  the  country  is  bleeding  to  death.  Numerous  treasures, 
the  property  of  the  people,  which  it  took  centuries  to  gather,  are 
now  being  mutilated  beyond  repair. 

And  so  we  appeal  to  you.  Help  the  country.  Demand,  together 
with  us,  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press.  Safeguard  the  lawful 
elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Clear  the  way  for  the  real 
representatives  of  the  people.  And  may  they  restore  the  past  glory  of 
the  Russian  people!" 

On  November  21,  two  weeks  after  the  Bolsheviki  revolt, 
Maxim  Gorky,  who  at  one  time  had  been  quite  sympathetic 
towards  the  Bolsheviki,  wrote  as  follows  in  his  paper,  "Novaya 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  509 

Zhizn"    (The    New    Life),    expressing   the    sentiment   of   the 
Russian  intelligentsia: 

"Blind  fanatics  and  unscrupulous  adventurers  are  rushing  headlong 
towards  'social  revolution' — as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the  road  to  an- 
archy, the  ruin  of  the  proletariat  and  the  Revolution. 

Along  this  road  Lenine  and  his  aides  think  it  possible  to  commit 
all  crimes,  such  as  the  bloody  fight  in  Petrograd,  the  devastation  of 
Moscow,  the  annulment  of  freedom  of  speech,  the  senseless  arrests, — 
all  the  monstrous  doings  of  von  Plehve  and  Stolypin.* 

True,  Stolypin  and  von  Plehve  acted  against  the  Democracy, 
against  all  that  was  sound  and  honest  in  Russia,  while  Lenine  has  at 
present  the  backing  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  workmen,  but  I 
trust  ,that  the  common  sense  of  the  working  class,  the  realization  of 
their  historical  mission  will  soon  open  their  eyes  to  the  impossibility 
of  fulfilling  the  promises  made  by  Lenine  and  the  depth  of  his  mad- 
ness and  his  anarchistic  tendencies,  of  the  Bakunin  and  Nechaev 
kind. 

The  working  class  cannot  fail  to  realize  that  Lenine  is  experiment- 
ing with  its  blood,  and  trying  to  strain  the  revolutionary  mood  of  the 
proletariat  to  the  limit,  to  see  what  the  outcome  will  be. 

Of  course,  under  the  existing  circumstances,  he  does  not  believe 
in  the  possibility  of  a  victory  for  the  proletariat  of  Russia,  but  per- 
haps he  hopes  that  a  miracle  will  save  the  proletariat. 

The  workingman  must  know  that  there  really  are  no  miracles, 
and  that  he  will  have  to  confront  hunger,  complete  disorganization 
of  industry  and  transportation,  prolonged  and  bloody  anarchy  fol- 
lowed by  reaction  no  less  sanguinary  and  dark. 

That  is  where  the  proletariat  is  being  led  by  its  present  leader, 
and  one  must  understand  that  Lenine  is  not  an  all-powerful  magician, 
but  a  deliberate  juggler,  who  has  no  feeling  either  for  the  lives  or  the 
honor  of  the  proletariat. 

The  working  class  must  not  allow  adventurers  and  madmen  to 
thrust  upon  the  proletariat  the  responsibility  for  the  disgraceful, 
senseless  and  bloody  crimes  for  which  not  Lenine,  but  the  proletariat 
will   have   to  account." 


ON  November  7th  the  Bolsheviki  seized  governmental 
power  in  Petrograd,  and  later  in  Moscow  and  many 
provincial  cities,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  Russian  people  who,  notwith- 
standing all  the  pressure  exercised  by  the  Bolsheviki,  voted 
against  them  in   the   elections   to   the   Constituent   Assembly. 


♦Reactionary  Ministers  of  the  old   regime. 


510  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Nobody  can  elucidate  the  ideology  of  Bolshevism  better  than 
Lenine,  himself,  has  in  his  pamphlet  dealing  with  the  political 
parties  in  Russia.    We  will  quote  from  the  pamphlet,  permit- 
ting ourselves  a  few  words  of  comment  at  the  end. 
Lenine,  on  the  Political  Parties  in  Russia 

IP  hat  are  the  chief  groupings  of  political  parties  in  Russia  ? 

(a)  Parties  and  groups  more  right,  more  conservative  than  the 
Constitutional  Democrats. 

(b)  Constitutional-Democratic  Party  (Cadets,  the  National  Lib- 
erty Party)  and  the  groups  closely  attached  to  them. 

(c)  Social-Democrats,  Socialists-Revolutionists  and  the  groups 
closely  attached  to  them. 

(d)  Bolsheviki:  The  party  which  ought  properly  to  be  called  the 
Communistic  Party. 

What  classes  do  these  parties  represent?         What  class  standpoints  do   they 
express? 

(a)  The  feudal  landholders  and  the  more  backward  sections  of 
the  bourgeoisie. 

(b)  The  mass  of  the  bourgeoisie,  that  is,  the  capitalists,  and  those 
landholders  who  have  the  industrial,  bourgeois  ideology. 

(c)  Small  entrepreneurs,  small  and  middle-class  proprietors,  small 
and  more  or  less  well-to-do  peasants,  petite  bourgeoisie,  as  well  as 
those  workers  who  have  submitted  to  a  bourgeois  point  of  view. 

(d)  Class-conscious  workers,  day  laborers  and  the  poorer  classes 
of  the  peasantry,  who  are  classed  with  them  (semi-proletariat). 

What  is  their  relation  to  Socialism? 

(a  and  b)  Unconditionally  hostile,  since  it  threatens  the  profits 
of  capitalists  and  landholders. 

(c)  For  Socialism,  but  it  is  too  early  as  yet  to  think  of  it  or  to  take 
any  practical  steps  for  its  realization. 

(d)  For  Socialism.  The  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Delegates  must  at  once  take  every  practical  and  feasible 
step  for  its  realization. 

What  form  of  government  do  they  ivant  noiv? 

(a)  Constitutional  Monarchy,  absolute  authority  of  the  official 
class  and  the  police. 

(b)  A  bourgeois  parliamentary  republic,  i.  e.,  a  perpetuation  of  the 
rule  of  the  capitalists,  with  the  retention  of  the  official  (chinovnik) 
class  and  the  police. 

(c)  A  bourgeois  parliamentary  republic,  with  reforms  for  the 
workingmen  and  peasants. 

(d)  A  republic  of  the  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peas- 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  511 


ants  Delegates.  Abolition  of  the  standing  army  and  the  police;  substi- 
tuting for  them  an  armed  people;  officials  to  be  not  only  elected,  but 
also  subject  to  recall;  their  pay  not  to  exceed  that  of  a  good  work- 
ingman. 

SIioll  a   Constituent  Assembly  be  called? 

(a)  Not  necessary,  for  it  might  injure  the  landholders.  Suppose 
the  peasants  at  the  Constituent  Assembly  should  decide  to  take  away 
the  land  of  the  landholders? 

(b)  Yes,  but  without  stipulation  of  time.  Furthermore,  the  learned 
professors  should  be  consulted,  first,  because  Bebel  has  already  pointed 
out  that  jurists  are  the  most  reactionary  people  in  the  world;  and 
second,  because  the  experience  of  all  revolutions  shows  that  the  cause 
of  the  people  is  lost  when  it  is  entrusted  to  the  hands  of  professors. 

(c)  Yes,  and  as  soon  as  possible.  As  to  the  time,  we  have  already 
discussed  it  200  times  in  the  meetings  of  the  "Advisory  Commission," 
and  shall  definitely  dispose  of  it  in  our  201st  discussion  to-morrow. 

(d)  Yes,  and  as  soon  as  possible.  Yet,  to  be  successful  and  to  be 
really  convoked,  one  condition  is  necessary:  increase  the  number  and 
strengthen  the  power  of  the  Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Delegates;  organize  and  arm  the  masses.  Only  thus  can 
the  Assembly  be  assured. 

In  favor  of  this  war  or  against  it? 

(a  and  b)  Unquestionably  in  favor,  for  it  brings  in  unheard-of 
profits  to  the  capitalists  and  promises  to  perpetuate  their  rule,  thanks 
to  dissension  among  the  workingmen,  who  are  egged  on  against  each 
other.  The  workingmen  must  be  deceived  by  calling  the  war  a  war  for 
national  defense,  with  the  special  object  of  dethroning  Wilhelm. 

(c)  In  general,  we  are  opposed  to  imperialistic  wars,  but  we  are 
willing  to  permit  ourselves  to  be  fooled,  and  to  call  this  a  war  of 
"revolutionary  defense,"  and  to  support  an  imperialistic  war  waged 
by  the  imperialistic  government  of  Guchkov,  Miliukov  &  Co. 

(d)  Absolutely  opposed  to  all  imperialistic  wars,  to  all  bourgeois 
governments  which  wage  them,  among  them  our  own  Provisional 
Government;  absolutely  opposed  to  "revolutionary  defense"  of  Russia. 
Must  officers  be  elected  by  the  soldiers? 

(a  and  b)  No,  it  would  be  bad  for  the  landholders  and  capitalists. 
If  the  soldiers  cannot  be  otherwise  contented,  we  must  promise  them 
this  reform  and  afterwards  take  it  away  from  them. 

(c)  Yes. 

(d)  Not  only  elected,  but  every  step  of  every  officer  and  general 
must  be  subject  to  the  control  of  special  soldiers'  committees. 

Must  the  fraternization  bet-ween  soldiers  of  the  warring  countries,  at  the 
front,  be  encouraged? 

(a  and  b)   No;   it  is  bad  for  the   interests  of  the  landholders  and 


512  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


capitalists,   since   it   may   accelerate   the   liberation   of   humanity  from 
their  yoke. 

(c)  Yes,  it  would  be  good.  But  we  are  not  fully  convinced  that 
such  an  encouragement  of  fraternization  should  be  at  once  under- 
taken in  all  warring  countries. 

(d)  Yes;  it  is  good  and  indispensable.  It  is  absolutely  necessary 
in  all  countries  at  war  to  encourage  all  attempts  at  fraternization  be- 
tween the  soldiers  of  both  warring  groups. 

This  document  is  interesting  as  reflecting  the  very  soul 
of  Bolshevism.  It  is  an  extremely  hypocritical  soul.  Ac- 
cording to  Lenine,  the  Constituent  Assembly  must  be  called 
"as  soon  as  possible."  The  Bolsheviki  had  accused  the  Pro- 
visional Government  more  than  once  of  delaying  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly.  Later  we  will  show  that  these  accusa- 
tions were  without  any  foundation  in  fact.  It  was  only 
natural  that  Lenine  should  make  the  same  accusation  in  the 
pamphlet  issued  before  the  Bolsheviki  came  into  power,  and 
that  he  should  state  that  the  strengthening  of  the  power  of  the 
Councils,  the  organizing  and  arming  ( !)  of  the  masses  was  the 
only  condition  under  which  the  Assembly  could  be  "really 
convoked,"  that  "only  thus  can  the  Assembly  be  assured." 

Eventually  the  Constituent  Assembly  was  convoked,  and,  be- 
cause it  was  opposed  to  the  Bolsheviki,  Lenine  dispersed  it 
in  a  manner  worse  than  the  Tzar  had  employed  in  dispersing 
the  Dumas  which,  representing  the  supreme  will  of  the  people, 
had  demanded  political  and  social  reforms  for  the  country. 

According  to  the  above-given  excerpts  from  his  pamphlet, 
Lenine  is  "absolutely  opposed  to  'revolutionary  defense'  of 
Russia."  According  to  his  views,  "the  Army'~ufificers  should 
"not  only  be  elected  but  every  step  of  every  officer  and  general 
must  be  subject  to  the  control  of  special  soldiers'  committees"; 
he  thinks  that  "it  is  absolutely  necessary  in  all  countries  at 
war  to  encourage  all  attempts  at  fraternization  between  the 
soldiers  of  both  warring  groups." 

Now,  when  fraternization  and  the  system  of  soldiers'  control 
has  brought  the  Russian  Army  to  complete  disintegration, 
and  the  enemy,  in  spite  of  the  "peace,"  is  moving  deeper 
and  deeper  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  even  the  Bolsheviki 
are    talking   about    the    necessity    for   building   a   new    Army 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  513 

with  the  old,  professional  officers  returned  to  their  posts, 
with  independence  for  the  officers  in  the  entire  sphere  of  the 
military  command,  with  the  subordination  of  the  Commanding 
Staff  only  to  the  Government  of  the  country. 

Discussing  the  relation  of  the  different  political  parties  to 
Socialism,  Lenine  declared  that  the  Councils  "must  at  once 
take  every  practical  and  feasible  step  for  the  realization  of 
Socialism."  Now,  when  the  Bolsheviki  kind  of  "realization" 
of  Socialism  has  resulted  in  the  utmost  disorganization  of  Rus- 
sia's industries,  transportation  and  finance,  the  Bolsheviki 
begin  to  speak  about  the  necessity  for  cooperating  with  the 
bourgeois  elements. 

Does  it  mean  that  the  Bolsheviki.  as  a  faction,  have  changed 
their  mind,  and  from  a  destructive  have  become  a  constructive 
element  in  the  country?  No,  unfortunately  it  does  not.  After 
realizing  what  their  being  in  power  has  cost  the  country,  do 
they  endeavor  to  establish,  instead  of  their  tyranny,  a  demo- 
cratic government  which  should  include  the  best  representa- 
tives of  Russia's  mind  and  statesmanship  and  be  recognized 
by  all  classes?  Do  they  call  the  Constituent  Assembly,  a 
body  elected  on  the  basis  of  the  most  democratic  suffrage  in 
the  world,  with  soldiers  and  women  participating  in  the 
elections?* 

No,  they  do  not.  The  great  country  is  disintegrating,  dying 
before  their  eyes ;  the  Teutonic  divisions,  released  from  the 
Eastern  Front,  are  endangering  the  Democracies  of  the  West. 
and  they,  the  new  dark  force  in  Russia's  life,  still  cling  to 
their  power  because  the  few  ideas  born  of  their  minds  are 
dearer  to  them  than  Russia's  existence,  even  the  world's  exist- 
ence. "Only  the  grave  can  make  a  hunchback  straight,"  says 
a  Russian  proverb. 

Russia  or  the  Bolsheviki — that  is  the  alternative.  If  the  Bol- 
sheviki remain  in  power  another  few  months,  little  will  be  left 
of  Russia.  If  the  miracle  of  Russia's  resurrection  will  occur, 
the  Bolsheviki  will  have  to  disappear.  The  existence  of  one 
means  the  death  of  the  other. 


•The   voting-   age    was   fixed    at    20    for   civilians    of   both    sexes,    and    18 
years — for  soldiers. 


514  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

THE  period  of  Bolshevism  has  brought  to  the  fore,  first 
of  all,  Russia's  national  problem.  The  separation  of 
the  Ukraine,  and  the  peace  concluded  by  the  Ukraine 
with  Germany  and  Austria  brought  the  Ukrainian  problem 
before  the  entire  world.  Unfortunately,  we  do  not  possess, 
at  this  moment,  sufficient  data  to  explain  fully  this  episode 
in  the  relations  of  the  Ukraine  to  Russia,  but,  one  thing  can 
be  firmly  established,  that  is,  that  the  Ukrainian  Rada,  in  its 
"Universal"  of  November  20,  1917,  two  weeks  after  the  Bol- 
sheviki  revolt,  declared  the  Ukraine  still  a  part  of  the  Russian 
Republic.    Here  is  the  first,  general  part  of  the  "Universal" : 

''Ukrainian  people  and  all  peoples  of  the  Ukraine!  An  hour  of  trials 
and  difficulties  has  come  for  the  Russian  Republic.  In  the  North,  in 
the  Capitals  a  bloody  internecine  struggle  is  in  progress.  A  Central 
Government  no  longer  exists,  and  anarchy,  disorder  and  ruin  are 
spreading  throughout  the  State. 

Our  country  also  is  in  danger.  Without  a  strong,  united  and  pop- 
ular Government,  the  Ukraine  also  may  fall  into  the  abyss  of  civil  war, 
slaughter  and  destruction. 

People  of  the  Ukraine,  you,  together  with  the  brother  peoples  of 
the  Ukraine,  have  intrusted  us  with  the  task  of  protecting  rights  won 
by  struggle,  of  creating  order  and  of  building  up  a  new  life  in  our  land. 
Ahd  we,  the  Ukrainian  Central  Rada,  by  your  will,  for  the  sake  of 
creating  order  in  our  country  and  for  the  sake  of  saving  the  whole  of 
Russia,  announce  that  henceforth  the  Ukraine  becomes  the  Ukrainian 
National  Republic.  Without  separating  from  the  Russian  Republic, 
we  take  our  stand  firmly  on  our  lands  that  with  our  strength  we  may 
help  the  whole  of  Russia,  and  that  the  whole  Russian  Republic  may 
become  a  federation  of  free  and  equal  peoples. 

Until  the  Ukrainian  Constituent  Assembly  meets,  the  entire  power 
of  creating  order  in  our  lands,  of  issuing  laws,  and  of  ruling  rests  with 
us,  the  Ukrainian  Central  Rada,  and  with  our  Government — the  Gen- 
eral Secretariate  of  the  Ukraine. 

Having  authority  and  power  in  our  native  land,  we  will  defend 
the  rights  won  by  the  Revolution,  not  only  in  our  own  lands,  but  in 
all  Russia  as  well. 

Therefore  we  announce:  To  the  territory  of  the  National  Ukrain- 
ian Republic  belong  the  lands  the  majority  of  the  population  of  which 
is  Ukrainian:  Kiev,  Podolia,  Volhynia.  Tchernigov,  Poltava,  Kharkov, 
Ekaterinoslav,  Kherson,  Tauris  (without  the  Crimea).  The  further 
delimitation  of  the  frontiers  of  the  Ukrainian  National  Republic,  viz., 
the  addition  of  part  of  Kursk,  Kholm,  Voronezh  and  the  neighboring 
provinces   and    districts,   the  majority   of  the  population   of  which   is 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheiil.i  515 

Ukrainian,  is  to  be   settled  according  to  the  organized   wishes  of  the 
peoples." 

The  "Universal"  proceeds  by  declaring-  abolished  "the  exist- 
ing rights  of  ownership  to  the  lands  of  large  proprietors  and 
other  lands  not  worked  by  the  owners" ;  it  establishes  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  all  factories  and  workshops  in  the  Ukrainian 
Republic ;  it  abolishes  the  death  penalty,  confirms  the  civil 
liberties  won  by  the  Revolution,  etc.  The  Rada  was  dom- 
inated by  Socialists,  and  this  is  reflected  in  this  historical 
document,  but,  the  Socialists  of  the  Rada  did  not  agree  very 
well  with  the  Bolsheviki  ruling  in  Petrograd,  and  the  following 
passage  from  the  "Universal"  may  explain,  psychologically  at 
least,  the  conflict  between  the  Bolsheviki  and  the  Rada : 

"Citizens  !  In  the  name  of  the  National  Ukrainian  Republic  in  federal 
Russia,  we,  the  Ukrainian  Central  Rada,  call  upon  all  to  struggle  reso- 
lutely with  all  forms  of  anarchy  and  disorder,  and  to  help  in  the  great 
work  of  building  up  new  State  forms,,  which  will  give  the  great  and 
powerful  Russian  Republic  health,  strength,  and  a  new  future.  The 
working  out  of  these  forms  must  be  carried  out  at  the  Ukrainian  and 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assemblies." 

The  same  Bolsheviki  leaders  who  encouraged  the  Ukrainian 
movement,  who  proclaimed  in  one  of  their  first  acts  that  every 
nationality  in  Russia  has  the  full  right  to  immediate  self- 
determination  and  even  separation,  the  same  Bolsheviki  who 
recognized  the  Ukrainian  delegation  at  the  Brest-Litovsk  Con- 
ference, proclaimed  the  Rada  a  bourgeois  institution  because 
it  would  not  agree  to  go  as  far  in  the  political  and  social  experi- 
ments as  the  Bolsheviki  desired  to  have  it  go.  They  started 
an  immediate  civil  war  in  the  Ukraine  and  frightened  the 
Ukrainian  people  to  such  a  degree  that  probably  they  were 
brought  to  prefer  even  the  Germans  to  the  Bolsheviki.  In 
addition  to  the  natural  psychological  processes  which  took 
place  at  that  time  and  brought  the  Ukraine  to  a  separate  peace, 
there  was.  indeed,  a  great  deal  of  German  and  Austrian  propa- 
ganda which  used  every  fanatical  step  of  the  Bolsheviki  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Central  Empires,  very  much  generally  inter- 
ested in  the  disintegration  of  Russia,  and  at  this  time  especially 
in  the  possibilities  of  obtaining  the  Ukrainian  grain. 

Whether  the  Ukraine  will  come  back  to  Russia  or  not  de- 


516  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

pends  very  much  upon  the  outcome  of  this  war.  The  Ukraine 
is  already  having  her  lesson ;  notwithstanding-  the  "peace," 
she  feels  the  Prussian  boot  daily.  If  Russia  will  be  saved  from 
German  domination,  it  is  most  probable  that  the  Ukraine  will 
come  back. 

There  are  probably  reasons  for  believing  in  the  existence  of 
the  Ukrainian  culture,  but  this  culture  is  so  close  to  the  cul- 
ture of  Great  Russia  that  volumes  are  written  with  the  special 
purpose  of  showing  that  there  is  a  Ukrainian  culture  in  exist- 
ence. The  Ukrainians  are  justly  proud  of  their  great  poet, 
Shevchenko,  but  the  Great  Russians  love  him  and  consider  him 
their  own.  On  the  other  hand,  the  greatest  writers  of  the 
Ukrainian  nationality,  Gogol  and  Korolenko,  wrote  in  Russian 
and  will  live  forever  in  the  history  of  Russian  literature  and 
culture. 

If  the  separatist  movement  in  the  Ukraine  leaves  anyone 
in  doubt,  and  the  final  decision  of  the  problem  must  be.  post- 
poned, probably,  until  the  end  of  the  war,  the  "separatist" 
movement  in  Siberia  and  in  the  Caucasus  does  not  warrant 
any  doubts  whatsoever.  Both  of  these  regions  very  defin- 
itely consider  themselves  parts  of  Russia,  and  if  they  now 
act  independently  from  the  center,  it  is  because  they  do  not 
recognize  the  rule  of  the  Bolsheviki.  Their  hopes  lean  to  the 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly  which  alone,  in  their  opin- 
ion, is  able  to  create  a  stable  democratic  government  and  has 
the  right  to  define  the  limits  of  autonomy  for  the  different 
parts  of  Russia. 


THE  period  of  Bolshevism  also  brought  to  the  foreground 
the  Cossack  problem.  The  Cossacks  have  been  and  are 
almost  the  only  power  in  Russia  which  has  actually 
fought  and  continues  to  fight  the  Bolsheviki.  The  real  nature 
of  this  Cossack  movement  is  not  altogether  properly  under- 
stood. 

People  in  this  country  have  been  accustomed  to  consider 
the  Cossacks  a  counter-revolutionary  force.  The  ground  for 
this  presumption  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  Tzar's  Government 
had  used  the  Cossacks  extensively  for  suppressing  revolution- 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  517 

ary  uprisings  in  Russia  for  the  last  two  or  three  decades. 
It  must  be  said,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the  old  Government 
sent  against  the  revolutionists  not  only  the  Cossacks,  but 
all  other  units  of  the  Army  as  well.  The  entire  Army,  as 
long  as  the  Tzar's  Government  was  able  to  control  it,  was 
used  as  a  counter-revolutionary  force.  The  revolt  in  the 
Russian  Fleet,  in  1905  and  1906,  was  suppressed  in  part  by 
the  sailors  who  had  not  joined  the  Revolution,  and  partly  by 
the  artillery  of  the  Fortresses  of  Kronstadt  and  Sveaborg. 
The  famous  revolutionary  uprising  in  Moscow,  in  December. 
1905,  was  suppressed  by  several  regiments  of  infantry  which 
came  down  from  Petrograd. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  version  that  the  Revolution 
in  March,  1917,  started,  in  Petrograd,  after  a  Cossack  shot  a 
police  officer  who  had  just  before  killed  a  student  for  trying 
to  make  a  revolutionary  speech.  And  the  Cossacks  in  Petro- 
grad were  the  first  military  unit  to  join  the  Revolution.  In 
the  middle  of  June,  1917,  the  first  All-Russian  Cossack  Con- 
gress met  in-  Petrograd,  and  unanimously  adopted  the  fol- 
lowing resolution  : 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Cossacks'  Delegates  has  faith  in 
the  administrative  genius  of  the  Russian  people,  which  more  than 
once  has  manifested  itself  in  the  darkest  moments  of  our  national 
history.  The  Congress  firmly  believes  that  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, pursuing  a  domestic  policy  based  on  the  consent  of  all  the 
organized  democratic  forces,  and  a  foreign  policy  in  complete  har- 
mony with  the  Allies,  will  be  able  to  guide  Russia  into  the  paths  of 
liberty  and  democracy.  The  Cossacks  of  all  Russia,  inspired  with  a 
deep  democratic  spirit,  are  ready  to  render  all  their  support  to  the 
Provisional  Government  in  its  work  of  eradicating  anarchy,  prevent- 
ing counter-revolution,  and  safeguarding  freedom  of  elections  to  the 
Constituent  Assembly  so  that  it  may  be  a  true  expression  of  the 
popular  will,  and  thus  be  instrumental  in  making  Russia  a  true 
democracy." 

The  same  Congress  adopted  the  following  resolution  re- 
garding  Russia's  .future   form   of  government : 

"The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Cossacks'  Delegates,  having  de- 
liberated upon  the  question  concerning  the  future  form  of  the  Russian 
Government,  decides:  Russia  must  be  an  undivided,  democratic  Re- 
public with  broad  local  autonomy."* 


*See  also  General  Kaledine's  speech  at  the  National  Conference  in  Mos- 
cow. r>p.  450-453. 


518  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

In  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Cossack  movement,  the 
All-Russian  Council  of  the  Cossack  Troops,  on  November  23, 
1917,  two  weeks  after  the  Bolsheviki  revolt,  adopted  a  political 
progpam  according  to  which  all  privileges  and  restrictions 
based  on  class,  caste,  nationality  or  religion  should  be  abol- 
ished. This  program  demands  the  inviolability  of  persons  and 
homes,  and  freedom  of  thought,  speech,  the  press  and  assem- 
blage. Russia  is  to  become  a  democratic,  federated  Republic, 
the  constitution  of  which  should  be  drawn  up  by  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly.  The  various  nationalities  and  ethnographic 
groups  should  receive  autonomy. 

The  Cossack  movement  is  indeed  an  anti-Bolsheviki  move- 
ment. But,  to  be  against  the  Bolsheviki  does  not  at  all  mean 
to  be  counter-revolutionary.  In  fact,  the  greatest  Russian 
revolutionists,  such  leaders  as  Peter  Kropotkin,  E.  C.  Breshko- 
Breshkovskaya,  George  Plekhanov,  V.  M.  Chernov,  I.  G. 
Tseretelli  and  many  others  are  against  the  Bolsheviki.  The 
Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  led  by  its  Central  Com- 
mittee, is  against  the  Bolsheviki.  The  Mensheviki  part  of  the 
Russian  Social-Democracy  is  also  against  the  Bolsheviki. 

A  Russian  revolutionist,  worthy  of  the  name,  cannot  but  be 
against  the  Bolsheviki  because,  in  spite  of  their  revolutionary 
phraseology,  the  Bolsheviki,  compromising  the  Revolution  by 
extremism,  are  preparing  the  ground  for  reaction.  Everyone 
who  fights  the  Bolsheviki  in  the  name  of  a  stable  democracy, 
everyone  who  looks  forward  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  as 
the  only  sovereign  body  able  to  decide  the  fundamental  polit- 
ical and  social  problems  facing  Russia,  is  defending  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  liberties  won  by  the  Revolution.  In  that  respect 
the  Cossack  movement  is  a  sound,  democratic  movement,  and 
as  such  will  it  be  recognized  by  history. 


DELAY  in  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
was  one  of  the  chief  accusations  of  the  Bolsheviki 
against  the  Provisional  Government.  We  have  already 
spoken  and  we  will  speak  further  about  the  Bolsheviki's  rela- 
tion to  that  sovereign  body,  but,  first  of  all,  we  want  to  make 
it  clear  that  the  accusations  against  the  Provisional  Govern- 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  519 

ment  of  delaying  the  Assembly  were  without  any  foundation 
in  fact. 

The  Provisional  Government,  in  its  Manifesto  to  the  nation, 
dated  March  20,  1917,  promised  to  convoke  the  Constituent 
Assembly  "as  soon  as  possible."  The  second  Cabinet,  organ- 
ized after  the  resignation  of  Miliukov  and  Guchkov,  repeated 
that  promise.  It  was  first  necessary  to  organize  a  thoroughly 
representative  commission  to  work  out  the  election  laws.  Such 
a  commission,  because  of  the  importance  of  its  work,  had  to 
be,  in  itself,  of  the  nature  of  a  Constituent  Assembly,  and  the 
parleys  of  the  Provisional  Government  with  all  the  Russian 
parties  and  nationalities  naturally  consumed  time.  On  June 
7,  1917,  the  sessions  of  the  Commission  for  the 'convocation 
of  the  Constituent  Assembly  were  opened  by  Prince  G.  E. 
Lvov,  then  Prime  Minister,  with  F.  F.  Kokoshkin  as  Chair- 
man. 

The  work  of  the  Commission  made  it  possible  for  the  third 
Cabinet,  organized  after  Prince  Lvov's  resignation,  in  its 
declaration  of  July  22,  to  designate  September  30  as  the  day 
for  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly.  This  date  was 
changed  only  once  by  the  following  decree,  issued  on  August 
22  and  signed  by  Prime  Minister  Kerensky  and  Secretarv  of 
Justice  Zarudny : 

"Desiring  to  assure  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent 'Assembly 
as  soon  as  possible,  the  Provisional  Government  designated  the  30th 
of  September  as  election  day,  in  which  case  the  whole  burden  of 
making  up  the  election  lists  must  fall  on  the  Municipalities  and  the 
newly  elected  Zemstvos.  The  enormous  labor  of  holding  the  elections 
for  the  local  institutions  has  taken  time.  At  present,  in  view  of  the 
date  of  establishment  of  the  local  institutions,  on  the  basis  decreed 
by  the  Government, — direct,  general,  equal,  and  secret  suffrage, — the 
Provisional  Government  has  decided: 

To  set  aside  as  the  day  for  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly 
the  25th  of  November,  of  the  year  1917,  and  as  the  date  for  the  con- 
vocation of  the  Constituent  Assembly  the  12th  of  December,  of  the 
year  1917."* 


*It  mav  be  added  that  a  serious  factor  endangering  the  possibility  of 
the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  even  on  the  later  date,  was 
the  strike  in  the  paper  industry,  which,  on  October  8th.  brought  a  special 
appeal  from  the  Minister  of  Labor,  Gvosdiev,  to  the  Labor  Unions  in  this 
industry.  Notwithstanding  these  adverse  circumstances,  everything  was 
ready  for  the  elections  on  November  25.  and  the  very  nature  of  the  Bol- 
sheviki revolt  is  best  revealed  by  the  fact  that  they  seized  governmental 
power  in  Petrograd  by  force,  less  than  three  weeks  before  the  general 
elections.  They  would  not  have  done  so  if  they  were  certain  that  they  had 
the  country  behind  them. 


520  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


Notwithstanding  the  above-given  facts,  on  the  25th  of  Octo- 
ber, Leon  Trotsky,  speaking  at  the  Conference  of  Northern 
Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  introduced  a 
resolution  accusing  Kerensky  of  preventing  the  convocation  of 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  and  demanding  that  all  power  be 
transferred  to  the  Councils,  which,  among  other  things,  would 
undertake  to  convoke  the  Constituent  Assembly  on  the  date 
set  aside,  the  12th  of  December. 

Trotsky's  resolution  was  repeated  in  full  in  the  first  proc- 
lamation which  announced  the  fall  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment and  the  program  of  the  Bolsheviki.  Announcing  the 
transfer  of  land  to  the  Peasant  Committees,  the  proclamation 
added  that  the  Committees  would  take  charge  of  the  land 
until  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Further- 
more, it  repeated  that  one  of  the  main  aims  of  the  Bolsheviki 
was  the  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

In  accordance  with  this  program  outlined  by  the  Bolsheviki 
in  their  first  proclamations,  on  the  tenth  of  November,  three 
days  after  the  revolt,  the  following  decree  was  published  by 
Lenine,  as  President  of  the  Council  of  the  People's  Commis- 
saries : 

"In  the  name  of  the  Government  of  the  Republic,  elected  by  the 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Dele- 
gates, with  the  participation  of  the  Peasants'  Delegates,  the  Council 
of  the  People's  Commissaries  decrees: 

1.  That  the  elections  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  shall  be  held 
on  November  25th,  the  day  set  aside  for  this  purpose. 

2.  All  electoral  committees,  all  local  organizations,  the  Councils 
of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates  and  the  soldiers' 
organizations  at  the  Front  are  to  bend  every  effort  towards  safe- 
guarding the  freedom  of  the  voters  and  fair  play  at  the  elections  to 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  which  will  be  held  on  the  appointed  date." 

There  were  already  then  many  persons  in  Russia  who 
doubted  the  sincerity  of  the  Bolsheviki  in  regard  to  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  and  to  these  doubting  minds  the  Petrograd 
"Pravda,"  the  official  organ  of  the  Bolsheviki,  spoke  in  its 
issue  of  November  11th,  pointing  to  Lenine's  decree,  that  the 
decree  "seems  to  be  definite  enough."  "It  is  clear  to  every- 
body," said  the  Bolsheviki  organ,  "that  only  an  outright  liar 
can,  after  this,  sav  that  the  Bolsheviki  government  is  attempt- 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  521 

ing  to  kill  the  Constituent  Assembly  and  does  not  want  to 
call  it  on  the  appointed  date  because  it  is  afraid  of  it." 

With  every  step  of  the  elections  showing  that  the  country 
did  not  accept  the  Bolsheviki  program  and  voted  against  it  in 
such  numbers  that  a  very  strong  anti-Bolsheviki  majority  in 
the  Assembly  was  certain,  the  Bolsheviki,  notwithstanding 
their  earlier  promises  to  the  masses,  formulated  a  new  idea 
which  expressed  itself  in  the  convocation  of  the  Congress  of 
Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  simul- 
taneously with  the  Constituent  Assembly.  The  reason  for 
calling  the  Congress  of  Councils  was  explained  in  a  way  that 
recalls  the  story  of  the  famous  Caliph  who  gave  the  order  to 
burn  all  the  books  in  the  library  of  a  city  just  taken  by  his 
troops:  "These  books  are  useless  if  they  repeat  Koran,"  said 
the  Caliph,  "and  harmful  if  they  contradict  it.  In  any  case 
these  books  must  be  burned." 

The  Bolsheviki  logic  in  regard  to  the  Constituent  Assembly 
was  very  much  of  the  same  character.  They  agreed  that  the 
Constituent  Assembly  expresses  the  feelings  of  all  Russia,  of 
all  classes  of  Russia,  but  for  the  Bolsheviki,  the  holy  truth 
can  be  expressed  only  by  the  representatives  of  workingmen 
and  soldiers.  They  called  the  Congress  of  Councils  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  and  the  Constituent  Assembly 
became  futile.  The  Constituent  Assembly,  from  the  Bolshe- 
viki point  of  view,  «is  probably  of  some  use  if  it  repeats  the 
Bolsheviki  declarations,  but  it  is  certainly  harmful  if  it  con- 
tradicts them. 

The  Bolsheviki's  treatment  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
is  probably  best  expressed  in  the  following  appeal  of  one 
hundred  and  nine  members  of  the  Assembly  belonging  to  the 
Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists.  This  appeal  will  forever 
remain  one  of  the  most  striking  documents  in  Russia's  polit- 
ical history : 

"Having  been  elected  by  the  people,  we  belong  to  them.  To  the 
people  are  we  responsible  and  to  the  people  are  we  accountable  for 
our  actions.  We  therefore  shall  write  to  the  people  so  that  they  may 
know  and  judge  us.  In  this  first  letter  we  inform  the  people  about 
our  main  problems  and  about  the  first  steps  we  have  taken  in  Petro- 
erad.     The  main  tasks  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  will  include  the 


522  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


consideration  of  the  speediest  possible  conclusion  of  peace,  the  trans- 
fer of  the  land  to  the  toilers  without  compensation  to  the  former 
owners  and  the  safeguarding  of  the  liberties  won  by  the  people. 

'Peace,  Land  and  Freedom' — these  are  ordered  from  us  by  the 
people,  and  this  slogan  shall  be  inscribed  on  our  banner.  Under  this 
banner  will  we  live  and  work.  Under  this  banner  will  we  fight  all 
hostile  forces.  We  believe  that  in  this  struggle  and  this  work  we  shall 
not  be  alone,  we  trust  that  all  the  toiling  masses  are  with  us  and 
backing  us,  the  Army,  the  peasantry  and  all  the  laboring  class. 

Upon  solving  these  questions  we  take  up  the  problem  of  labor, 
the  question  of  fixed  prices  on  all  products,  of  government  control 
over  all  industries,  and  finally,  the  question  of  the  rights  of  various 
peoples  which  make  up  the  great  Russian  Republic. 

'Peace,  Land  and  Freedom' — this  is  our  slogan  for  the  coming 
days  and  weeks.  With  this  slogan  we  fight  and  are  ready  to  die 
rather  than  yield  on  this  point.  We  will  conquer  or  die:  there  is 
no  retreat  for  us. 

And  we  are  apparently  facing  no  small  battle  for  not  all  want  to 
recognize  our  right  to  the  supreme  power,  despite  the  fact  that  we 
were  elected  by  the  people.  To  the  will  of  the  people  who  have 
elected  and  sent  us  out  to  engage  in  the  great  struggle  for  peace, 
land  and  freedom,  not  all  will  willingly  submit.  Our  first  days  in 
Petrograd  proved  this.     We  shall  tell  you  about  them. 

On  the  appointed  day  and  hour  of  the  opening  of  the  session  of 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  November  28th,  at  2  P.  M.,  the  Delegates 
to  the  Constituent  Assembly  who  had  arrived  in  Petrograd  gathered 
at  the  Tavrichesky  Palace.  The  elected  representatives  of  the  people 
beheld  innumerable  banners  and  large  crowds  surrounding  the  Palace. 
This  was  Petrograd  greeting  the  representatives  of  the  people.  At 
the  doors  of  the  Palace,  the  picture  changed.  There  stood  armed 
guards  and  at  the  order  of  the  usurpers,  the  Bolsheviki,  they  refused 
to  let  the  Delegates  pass  into  the  Tavrichesky  Palace.  It  appeared 
that  in  order  to  enter  the  building,  the  Delegates  first  had  to  pay  re- 
spects to  the  Commissaire,  a  satellite  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky,  and 
there  receive  special  permission.  The  Delegates  would  not  submit 
to  that;  elected  by  the  people  and  equipped  with  formal  authorization, 
they  had  the  right  to  freely  enter  any  public  building  assigned  for 
their  meeting.  The  Delegates  decided  to  enter  the  Tavrichesky  Palace 
without  asking  the  new  authorities  and  they  succeeded  in  doing  so. 
On  the  first  day  the  guards  did  not  dare  lift  their  arms  against  the 
people's  elected  representatives  and  allowed  them  to  enter  the  build- 
ing unmolested. 

There  was  no  struggle,  no  violence,  no  sacrifices  ;  the  Delegates" 
demanded  that  the  guards  respect  their  rights;  they  demanded  to  be 
admitted  and  the  guards  yielded. 

In    the   Tavrichesky   Palace   the    Delegates    opened    their    meeting. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  523 


V.  M.  Chernov  was  elected  Chairman.  There  were,  altogether,  about 
40  Delegates  present.  They  realized  that  there  were  not  enough 
present  to  start  the  work  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  It  was  de- 
cided that  it  would  be  advisable  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  other 
Delegates  and  start  the  work  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  only  when 
a  sufficient  number  were  present.  Those  already  there  decided  to 
meet  daily  at  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  in  order  to  count  all  the 
Delegates  as  they  arrived,  and  on  an  appointed  day  to  publicly 
announce  the  day  and  hour  of  the  beginning  of  the  activities  of  the 
Constituent  Assembly. 

When  the  Delegates  finished  their  session  and  adjourned,  the  old 
guards  had  been  dismissed  for  their  submissive  attitude  towards  the 
Delegates  and  replaced  by  armed  civilian  followers  of  Lenine  and 
Trotsky.  The  latter  issued  an  order  to  disband  the  Delegates,  but 
there  were  none  to  be  disbanded. 

The  following  day  the  government  of  the  Bolsheviki  dishonestly 
and  basely  slandered  the  people's  representatives  in  their  official 
announcement  which  appeared  in  the  "Pravda."  The  lying  newspaper 
wrote  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  had  forced  their  way 
into  the  Palace  accompanied  by  junkers  and  the  White  Guards  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  that  the  representatives  wanted  to  take  advantage  of 
their  small  numbers  and  had  begun  the  work  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly.  Everyone  knows  that  that  is  slanderous  as  regards  the 
representatives  of  the  people.  Such  lies  and  slanders  were  resorted 
to  by  the  old  regime. 

The  aim  of  the  slanders  and  the  lies  is  clear.  The  usurpers  do 
not  want  the  people's  representatives  to  have  the  supreme  power 
and  therefore  are  preparing  to  disband  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

On  the  28th  of  November,  in  the  evening,  having  begun  to  arrest 
members  of  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  the  Bolsheviki  vio- 
lated the  inviolability  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  On  December  3, 
a  Delegate  to  the  Constituent  Assembly,  the  Socialist-Revolutionist, 
Filippovsky,  who  was  elected  by  the  army  on  the  Southwestern  Front, 
was  arrested. 

In  accordance  with  their  decision  reached  on  November  28,  the 
Delegates  gathered  at  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  on  November  29  and 
30.  As  on  the  first  day,  armed  soldiers  stood  guard  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Palace  and  would  not  let  anyone  pass.  The  Delegates,  how- 
ever, insisted  and  were  finally  allowed  to  enter. 

On  the  third  day,  scenes  of  brutal  violence  towards  the  people's 
representatives  took  place  at  the  Palace.  Peasants  were  the  un- 
fortunate victims  of  this  violence. 

When  the  Delegates  had  ended  their  session  and  all  that  remained 
was  the  affixing  of  signatures  to  the  minutes,  sailors  forced  their  way 
into  the  hall:  these  were  headed  by  a  Bolshevik  officer,  a  former 
commander  of  the  Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul.     The  commander 


524  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 

demanded  that  the  Delegates  disband.  In  reply,  it  was  stated  that 
the  Delegates  would  disband  after  they  had  finished  their  business. 
Then  at  the  order  of  the  commander,  the  sailors  took  the  Delegate. 
Ilyan,  elected  by  the  peasants  of  the  Province  of  Tambov,  by  the 
arm  and  dragged  him  to  the  exit.  After  Ilyan,  the  sailors  dragged 
out  the  peasant  Delegate  from  the  Province  of  Moscow,  Bikov;  then 
the  sailors  approached  Maltzev,  a  peasant  Delegate  from  the  Province 
of  Kostroma.  He,  however,  shouted  out  that  he  would  rather  be 
shot  than  submit  to  such  violence.  His  courage  appealed  to  the 
sailors  and  they  stopped. 

Now  all  the  halls  in  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  are  locked  and  it  is 
impossible  to  meet  there.  The  Delegates  who  come  to  the  Tavrichesky 
Palace  cannot  even  gather  in  the  lobby,  for  as  soon  as  a  group  gathers, 
the  armed  hirelings  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky  disperse  them.  Thus,  in 
former  times,  behaved  the  servants  of  the  Tzar  and  the  enemies 
of  the  people,  policemen  and  gendarmes! 

This  is  clear  to  all.  The  talk  of  the  Bolsheviki  regarding  the 
speediest  convocation  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  was  false  and  de- 
ceptive. Then  the  talk  was  necessary  in  order  to  usurp  governmental 
power.  They  said  one  thing  and  thought  another;  they  spoke  about 
the  people's  rule,  but  were  at  the  same  time  striving  to  get  power 
over  the  people.  They  have  usurped  power  by  falsehood  and  blood- 
shed and  they  are  grasping  it  convulsively.  It  is  clear  to  all  that  a 
collision  between  the  people's  representatives  and  the  usurpers  is 
bound  to  occur.  We  are  not  afraid  of  this  coming  collision;  when  a 
sufficient  number  of  us  will  have  come  together,  we  shall  again  go 
to  the  Tavrichesky  Palace  and  begin  the  work  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly.  We  will  not  yield  to  violence.  We  alone,  however,  have 
not  the  power  to  win.  We  need  the  support  of  the  whole  people 
and  we  are  waiting  for  it.  We  call  upon  the  people  to  support  their 
representatives  in  every  possible  way.  We  appeal  to  all  to  enter 
into  the  struggle  against  the  usurpers  of  the  people's  will.  Other- 
wise, the  people  will  have  no  peace,  no  land,  no  liberty,  no  order. 
Otherwise,  the  martyred  toiling  classes  are  threatened  with  poverty, 
oppression  and  hunger. 

Be  ready  to  defend  the  Constituent  Assembly  when  it  calls  upon 
you." 

The  Constituent  Assembly  was  formally  opened  on  January 
18,  and  after  a  single  day's  session  was  dispersed  by  bayonets.* 
During  this  brief  session  the  Assembly,  presided  over  by  V. 
M.  Chernov,  adopted  the  following  resolutions : 


•The  majority  in  the  Constituent  Assembly  consisted  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists  who  elected  V.  M.  Chernov  President  of  the  Assembly.  The 
Bolsheviki  possessed  less  than  one-third  of  the  votes  in   the  Assembly. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  525 


Russia's  Form  of  Government 

In  the  name  of  the  peoples  who  compose  the  Russian  State,  the 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly  proclaims  the  Russian  State  to  be 
the  Russian  Democratic  Federated  Republic,  uniting  indissolubly 
into  one  whole  the  peoples  and  territories  which  are  sovereign 
within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  Federal  Constitution. 

Laws  Regarding  Land  Ownership 

1.  The  right  to  privately  own  land  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
Russian  Republic  is  hereby  abolished  forever. 

2.  All  the  land  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Russian  Republic, 
with  all  mines,  forests  and  waters,  is  hereby  declared  the  property 
of  the  nation. 

3.  The  Republic  has  the  right  to  control  all  the  land,  with  all  the 
mines,  forests  and  waters  thereof,  through  the  central  and  local 
administration,  in  accordance  with  the  regulations  provided  by  the 
present  law. 

4.  The  autonomous  provinces  of  the  Russian  Republic  have  title 
to  land  on  the  basis  of  the  present  law  and  in  accordance  with  the 
Federal  Constitution. 

5.  The  tasks  of  the  central  and  local  governments  as  regards 
the  use  of  land,  mines,  forests  and  waters  are  : 

(a)  The  creation  of  conditions  conducive  to  the  best  possible 
utilization  of  the  country's  natural  resources  and  the  highest  pos- 
sible development  of  its  productive  forces. 

(b)  The  fair  distribution  of  all  natural  wealth  among  the  people. 

6.  The  rights  of  individuals  and  institutions  to  land,  mines,  for- 
ests and  waters  are  restricted  merely  to  utilization  by  said  indi- 
viduals and  institutions. 

7.  The  use  of  all  land,  mines,  forests  and  waters  is  free  to  all 
citizens  of  the  Russian  Republic,  regardless  of  nationality  or  creed. 
This  includes  all  unions  of  citizens,  also  governmental  and  public 
institutions. 

8.  The  right  to  use  the  land  is  to  be  acquired  and  discontinued  on 
the  basis  prescribed  by  this  fundamental  law. 

9.  All  titles  to  land  at  present  held  by  individuals,  associations 
and  institutions  are  abolished  in  so  far  as  they  contradict  this  law. 

10.  All  land,  mines,  forests  and  waters,  at  present  owned  by  or 
otherwise  in  the  possession  of  individuals,  associations  and  institu- 
tions, are  confiscated  without  compensation  for  the  loss  incurred. 

Democratic  Peace 

In  the  name  of  the  peoples  of  the  Russian  Republic,  the  All- 
Russian  Constituent  Assembly,  expressing  the  firm  will  of  the  people 
to  immediately  discontinue  the  war  and  conclude  a  just  and  general 
peace,  appeals  to  the  Allied  countries  proposing  to  define  jointly  the 


526  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


exact  terms  of  a  democratic  peace  acceptable  to  all  the  belligerent 
nations,  in  order  to  present  these  terms,  in  behalf  of  the  Allies,  to  the 
Governments  fighting-  against  the  Russian  Republic  and  her  Allies. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  firmly  believes  that  the  attempts  of 
the  peoples  of  Russia  to  end  the  disastrous  war  will  meet  with  a 
unanimous  response  on  the  part  of  the  peoples  and  Governments  of 
the  Allied  countries,  and  that  by  common  efforts  a  speedy  peace  will 
be  attained,  which  will  safeguard  the  well-being  and  dignity  of  all  the 
belligerent  countries. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  resolves  to  elect  from  its  midst  an 
authorized  delegation  which  will  carry  on  negotiations  with  the 
representatives  of  the  Allied  countries  and  which  will  present  the 
appeal  to  jointly  formulate  terms  upon  which  a  speedy  termination 
of  the  war  will  be  possible,  as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
out  the  decisions  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  regarding  the  ques- 
tion of  peace  negotiations  with  the  countries  fighting  against  us. 

This  delegation,  which  is  to  be  under  the  guidance  of  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  is  to  immediately  start  fulfilling  the  duties  im- 
posed upon  it. 

Expressing,  in  the  name  of  the  peoples  of  Russia,  its  regret  that 
the  negotiations  with  Germany,  which  were  started  without  a  pre- 
liminary agreement  with  the  Allied  democracies,  have  assumed  the 
character  of  negotiations  for  a  separate  peace,  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  in  the  name  of  the  peoples  of  the  Russian  Democratic 
Federated  Republic,  while  continuing  the  armistice,  accepts  the 
further  carrying  on  of  the  negotiations  with  the  countries  warring 
against  us  in  order  to  work  towards  a  general  democratic  peace 
which  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the  people's  will  and  protect 
Russia's  interests."* 

The  country  is  temporarily  under  the  heels  of  Prussianism 
and  Bolshevism.  The  feeling's  of  the  responsible  leaders  and 
the  great  masses  of  the  people  may  be  expressed  in  the  slogan : 
"The  Constituent  Assembly  is  dead.  .  .  Long  live  the  Constitu- 
ent Assembly!" 
/ — Only  by  means  of  a  Constituent  Assembly  representing  all 
classes  will  the  great  nation  be  able  to  come  to  a  stable,  demo- 
y  <  cratic  government  and  to  a  democratic  order  without  which 
the  n 


new  Democracy  can  neither  exist  nor  develop. 


The  adoption  of  this  resolution  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  at 
that  time  all  Russia,  worn  out  by  war,  expected  and  believed  in  the  possi- 
bility  of  an  immediate,  general,  democratic  peace.  The  Constituent  Assem- 
bly had  to  face  the  armistice  and  the  parleys  with  Germany  as  a  fait 
accompli.  It  must  be  stated  that  the  Socialists-Revolutionists,  who  consti- 
tuted the  majority  in  the  Assembly,  voted  later,  at  the  Congress  of  the 
Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  in  Moscow,  against  the 
ratification  of  the  Brest-'Litovsk  Peace  Treaty. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bolsheviki  527 

Russia's  feelings  at  this  critical  moment  in  her  national 
existence  were  best  expressed  by  A.  F.  Kerensky,  whose 
appearance  before  the  Labcr  Party  Conference  in  London  at 
the  end  of  June,  1918,  stirred  the  entire  world.  Speaking 
before  this  Conference  on  June  28th,  Kerensky  said : 

Kerensky's  Speech 

Yesterday  one  of  the  members  of  the  Conference  asked  the  chair- 
man, "What  right  has  Kerensky  to  be  present  at  the  Conference?" 
I  shall  answer  the  question  myself.  I  am  here  not  as  a  matter  of 
right,  but  as  a  matter  of  duty.  It  is  my  duty  as  a  man  who  knows 
all  that  truth  which  for  a  long  time  did  not  reach  the  ears  of  the 
peoples  of  western  Europe  and  America.  You  must  know  it,  because 
in  the  great  and  terrible  world-war  the  most  vital  interests  of  the 
Allied  countries  are  inextricably  interwoven;  and  the  fate  of  a  country 
which  bore  the  burden  of  a  front  which  was  greater  in  length  than 
all  the  combined  fronts  of  the  other  Allies  cannot  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  for  the  future  of  all  the  Allies,  just  as  for  her  it  cannot 
be  a  matter  of  indifference  what  is  the  internal  and  external  situation 
of  the  countries  which  for  all  these  years  have  shared  with  her  the 
vicissitudes  of  fortune. 

I  did  not  come  here  to  beg  or  complain.  The  Russian  people 
has  in  times  gone  by  passed  through  trials  like  the  present,  and  has 
always  emerged  from  thes?  trials  strengthened  and  renewed.  And 
now.  bending  under  the  merciless  onset  of  Germany,  which  has 
skilfully  exploited  in  its  interests  the  heavy  legacy  of  our  old  regime, 
Russia,  bleeding  at  every  pore,  still  opposes  the  enemy's  invasion. 
I  bear  witness  here  that  the  Russian  people  will  never  recognize 
the  treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk.  which  is  hurling  Russia  into  the  abyss 
of  annihilation. 

For  three  years  the  Russian  army,  the  Russian  soldiers,  had  to 
fight  an  enemy,  perfectly  equipped  and  cruelly  merciless,  without 
proper  arms,  sometimes  with  sticks  in  their  hands,  under  conditions 
which  no  one  outside  Russia  can  imagine.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that,  having  repeatedly  suffered  and  borne  the  blows  of  the  enemy, 
having  in  their  turn  again  and  again  hit  him  hard,  thereby  saving 
the  western  front,  the  Russian  soldiers  for  whom  our  own  country,  under 
the  Tzar's  Government,  was  a  step-mother,  were  the  first  among 
the  belligerents  to  faint  in  the  struggle. 

The  great  Russian  revolution  instilled  new  courage  into  the  tired 
spirit,  but  could  not  immediately  revive  the  macerated  bodies,  and 
it  was  a  thousand  pities  that  the  warning  voices  coming  from  Russia 
were  not  at  the  time  heeded  by  the   western  Allies. 

The    treacherous    calls   of   peace   by    Germany    were   not   unmasked 


528  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


and  the  mass  of  the  Russian  soldiers,  incited  by  genuine  fanatics 
and  by  German  agents,  were  taken  by  the  false  appeals  only  to 
feel  on  their  own  backs  all  the  bitterness  of  a  German  peace.  The 
Ukrainian  peasant  understood  how  the  Germans  secured  the  inde- 
pendence of  small  nationalities  when  German  bayonets  and  chemical 
vapors  were  employed  to  rob  him  of  his  last  crust  of  bread,  and  to 
reinstate  all  of  the  atrocities  of  the  old  regime.  The  Russian  peasant, 
when  he  returned  to  his  village  that  was  cut  off  from  the  fertile 
provinces  of  Russia  which  supplied  her  with  essential  provisions  of 
victuals,  understood  what  annexations  and  contributions  mean.  The 
Russian  workmen,  too,  have  realized  their  position  when,  in  their 
thousands,  they  were  thrown  out  of  work.  They  understood  then 
the  meaning  of  the  dictatorship,  not  of  the  proletariat,  but  over  the 
proletariat,  who  have  lost  all  the  political  rights  which  the  revolution 
gave  them  and  who  again  live  under  the  police  terrorism  of  the  old 
legime. 

The  Russian  working  men,  together  with  other  classes  of  Russians, 
strongly  protest  now  against  the  tyranny  that  again  reigns  in  Russia. 
Probably  most  of  you  have  recently  seen  in  the  papers  the  resolution 
that  the  Moscow  workmen  have  passed  demanding  the  reinstatement 
of  democratic  institutions  and  the  termination  of  tyranny.  As  I  have 
said  just  now,  the  workmen  protest  against  tyranny. 

To  my  astonishment,  some  very  serious  European  political  men 
consider  the  regime  as  democratic — the  regime  which  has  dispersed 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  abolished  freedom  of  speech,  made  human 
life  the  easy  prey  of  every  Red  Guardsman,  destroyed  the  liberty 
of  the  elections  even  in  the  Councils  of  Workmen,  and  made 
an  end  of  all  the  institutions  of  self-government  that  have  been 
elected  by  universal  suffrage.  If  this  method  of  dealing  with  the 
population  may  be  considered  democratic,  then  I  may  be  permitted 
to  ask  what  may  be  the  essence  and  the  characteristic  features  of 
genuine  reaction? 

The  Bolshevists,  or  by  whatever  name  they  themselves  now  wish 
to  be  known,  claim  that  the  present  state  of  Russia  is  a  dictatorship 
of  the  proletariat,  although  the  most  ruthless  repression  is  applied 
against  the  Democratic  and  Socialist  parties  in  Russia  and  the  toiling 
masses.  War  has  been  organized  against  the  helpless  population, 
and  every  Russian  citizen  who  refuses  to  recognize  this  method  of 
government  as  perfect  is  declared  a  counter-revolutionary.  That  is 
the  position  of  affairs  in  Russia.  Here  you  might  ask  me  the  per- 
fectly reasonable  question  how  this  state  of  things  can  be  maintained 
if  it  is  opposed  by  practically  the  whole  population.  This  precisely 
is  the  question  the  reply  to  which  reveals  the  role  of  that  unseverable 
connection  which  exists  in  time  of  war  between  the  internal  state  of 
affairs  of  a  country  and  the  general  international  situation. 


Russia  under  the  Rule  of  the  Bobheviki  529 


I  have  no  desire  to  attempt  an  estimate  of  the  personal  motives 
of  certain  individuals  or  to  attribute  ill-will  to  causes  that  have  led 
to  great  catastrophes — the  most  imperfect  method  of  explaining 
historical  events.  The  motives  of  men  are  of  no  importance;  it  is 
the  actual  result  of  their  actions  that  matters.  Now  the  actual  result 
of  the  acts  of  Bolshevism,  whose  strength  mainly  lay  in  the  dis- 
organization of  the  worn-out  masses  of  soldiers,  was  merely  to  be 
the  vanguard  of  the  triumphing  German  imperialism. 

At  the  present  time  it  is  equally  advantageous  to  German  im- 
perialism to  create  strong  reactionary  powers  in  the  rich  provinces 
which  can  supply  raw  material  and  fuel,  and  to  favor  decomposition 
and  anarchy  in  the  very  heart  of  the  country.  To  reach  this  aim, 
Germany  must  paralyze  the  Russian  centre.  That  is  the  true  inward- 
ness of  the  connection  between  the  interior  affairs  of  Russia  and 
this  or  that  result  of  the  world-war.  Thus  the  interests  and  the  fate 
of  the  Russian  people  receive  a  special  significance  and  value  for  the 
whole  world,  and  more  particularly  for  the  interests  of  the  world's 
democracy. 

The  Russian  people  alone  may  not  be  able  to  overcome  the 
ghoul  of  international  reaction  that  is  holding  them  by  the  throat. 
Perhaps,  abandoned  by  all,  Russia  will  perish  from  want  of  blood. 
But  she  will  never  of  her  own  will  submit  to  the  humiliation  and 
shameful  treason  of  Brest-Litovsk.  It  is  for  you,  the  oldest  and 
most  mature  democracies  of  the  whole  world,  to  settle  the  question 
whether  it  is  or  is  not  possible  to  remain  a  calm  spectator  of  that 
unheard-of  tragedy. 

I  have  finished.  It  may  be  that  to-morrow  calumny  and  slander 
will  begin  its  work  again,  and  attempts  will  be  made  to  deny  the 
truth  of  all  I  have  said  to-day.  But,  comrades,  I  would  never  have 
crossed  thousands  of  miles  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  tell  to  the  Western 
land  and  America  a  single  word  that  I  did  not  profoundly  know  to 
be  the  absolute  truth." 

After  the  terrible  lesson,  the  constructive  forces  in  the  young 
country  are  growing  stronger  daily,  and  there  are  indications 
that  the  time  is  not  distant  when  Russia  will  begin  to  see  -the 
light  of  a  new  and  brighter  life.  The  assassination  of  Count 
Von  Mirbach,  the  German  ambassador,  at  Moscow,  and  of 
Field  Marshal  von  Eichho'rn,  German  Commander  in  the 
Ukraine,  by  the  Socialists-Revolutionists  of  the  left ;  the 
Czecho-Slovak  movement,  now  in  control  of  the  Siberian 
railroad  and  almost  of  the  entire  Volga  region ;  the  strong 
movement  among  the  Russian  peasantry  and  proletariat  for 
a  speedy  convocation  of  tht  Constituent   Assembly,  a  move- 


Pip ; ; 

530  The  Birth  of  the  Russian  Democracy 


ment  which  resulted  in  great  strikes  in  Petrograd,  Moscow, 
Nizhni  Novgorod,  and  many  other  provincial  cities ;  the  or- 
ganization of  an  autonomous  Siberian  Government  and  of 
the  Government  of  the  North,  built  on  coalition  principles, 
with  a  definite  orientation  towards  the  Allies;  the  Allied 
program  for  immediate  general  and  military  help  to  Russia 
enthusiastically  accepted  by  the  Russian  democracy, — all  these 
are  signs  that  Russia  is  coming  back.  Sooner  or  later  the 
period  of  disorganization  known  in  the  life  of  every  country 
that  has  emerged  from  tyranny  to  free  democratic  develop- 
ment will  pass,  and  the  world  will  see  the  realization  of 
President  Wilson's  statement  in  which  the  President  greeted 
the  new  Russian  Democracy  as  a  "fit  partner  for  a  League  of 
Honor." 


-3^ 


V 


^ 


0~ 


>*> 


Alphabetical  Index 


PAGE 

Adzhemov,    M.    S 149 

Agrarian  problem.  .305-326,  433,  525 

Aladin,    A     F 145 

Alexander   I    24 

Alexander  II... 32,   33,  34,  37,  38,   46 
52,  55,  56,  58.  69,  191,  193,  197 

Alexander  III 55,  69,  70,  73,  74 

Alexeiev,    Gen 481 

Alexinsky,   G.   A 153,   160 

All-Russian   Cossacks'   Congress. 409 

517 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Officers' 

Delegates     327.    339-345 

All-Russian     Congress    of     Peas- 
ants* Delegates.  .305-326,   396,   403 
All-Russian  Council  of  Peasants' 

Delegates    501,  503,  504 

All-Russian     Council     of    Work- 
men's   and    Soldiers'    Delegates 
279,  319,  350,  355.  387,  388,  396,  405 
411,   427 
All-Russian    Congress    of    "Work- 
men's,   Soldiers'   and   Peasants' 
Delegates.  .  .406,  407,  417,  418,  428 
429,   431 

Allies,  relations  with 277,   278 

American   Extraordinary   Mission 

356,  377-390 
American   Federation   of   Labor.. 356 

357,  358 

'Annals  of  the  Fatherland" 29 

Appeal    to   Allies 277,    278 

Appeal    to   Central    Powers 278 

Appeal    to   Neutrals 278 

Appeal   to  the  Poles 251 

Arkhangelsky,   V.   G 155 

Armenians     76 

Army 296,  299,  313,  315,  321,  344. 

345,  415,  416,  417,  422,  423,  434,  438 
439,  442,  446-448,  479.  482-485,  512 
(see  also  Convention   of   Dele- 
gates from   the  Front) 
Army,  appeal  to...  280,  281,  282,  406 
418-421,   429-431 

Army    command    410 

Army     officers — see     All-Russian 
Congress  of  Officers'  Delegates 

Arnoldi,    S.    S 186 

Avksentiev,  N.  D.  80,  160,  314,  326,  498 
Axelrod,   P 52,   78,   218 

Bakhmeteff,  Prof.  Boris  A.  ..391-404 
Bakunin..29.  41.   42,  48.  149,  171-179 

Balmashev,  Stepan 80,   81.   82,   83 

85,  89 

Batkin 300,  301.   302,   342 

Baturov.    M.   V 155 

Beilis    case    157 


Belgium    35g_    359 

Belousov,    G.    I j53 

Beltov,   N.    (see   Plekhanov) 218 

Berezin,    M.    I i52 

Bernatzky 


486 

Bertron.    Samuel    R 377 

Bestuzshev-Riumin    22    26 

Bielinsky,   Vissarion 29,    30,    31 

Bitzenko     135 

Black   Hundreds    116 

"Black    Repartition"    55 

Black  Sea  Fleet... 300,  301,   302,  342 

Bloody  Sunday 94    97 

Bogdanovich    go '  81 

Bogolepov    80>   81'    85 

Bolsheviki    ...220,   223,   256,   257,   283 

302,  349-354,  367.  411,  419,  423,  424 
426-429,  431,  482,  494-527 

Bondarev,    S.    1 143 

Borodin,   N.   A 142,    391 

Boublikov,  A.  A 231.  435,  463.  464 

Bourtzeff,  Vladimir 159,  498 

Bramson,    L.    M 145 

Breshkovskaya.     Ekaterina     Con- 

stantinovna   Breshko-    ....201-215 

306-308,   435,   464-466 

Brest-Litovsk,    Peace   Treaty    of. 499 

500 

De    Brucker,    Louis 358 

Bronstein — see  Trotsky 

Brusilov,   Gen 421,   483 

.Bulat,    A.    A 152 

Bulgakov,    S.    N 149 

Bunakov,  I.  1 160,  318-320,  326 

"Buturlin   Committee" 30,   33 

Caucasus     77 

Cadets 136.    140,    141 

(see  also  Constitutional-Demo- 
cratic Party) 

Caucasus     516 

Chasnikov    120,    121 

Chelnokov.   M.   V 149 

Chernov,  V.  M. .  80,  309-315,  346,  434 

523.  524 

Chernosvitov,    C.    C 149 

Chernyshevsky,  N.  .38.  39.  63,  64,  23  2 

"Chorny  Peredel"    217 

Circle  of  Tchaykovsky — see 

Tchaykovsky  Circle 
Coalition  Cabinet.  .350.   353.  354.  486 

Congress  of  Slavs 17  2 

Congress  of  Officers'   Delegates.  .  340 
Congress  of  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers'  Delegates 332.  333,   334 

Constantine     24.    25 

Constituent  Assembly .. 245,  249.  310 


Alphabetical  Index — Continued 


PAGE 

325,  348,  349,  355,  398,  399,  423,  424 

432,  433,  436,  488-492,  499,  501,  502 

"       504-508,  511-512,  513,  514,  515,  516 

517,  518-527 

Constitutional-Democratic    Party 

114,   136,   142-144,   149-151,   434 
510,   .",23 

"Contemporary"     29 

Convention  of  Delegates  from  the 

Front 283-304,    422 

Cossacks   235,   429,  516,  518 

(see     also     All-Russian      Cos- 
sacks' Congress) 

Council,   Imperial    136 

Council   of  Peasants'  Delegates.  .115 

399,  510 
Councils    of    Soldiers'    Delegates 

(1905)      115 

Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates. 399 
Council  of  Workmen's  Delegates, 

(Moscow)      124 

Council   of  Workmen's   Delegates 

(St.  Petersburg.)  115-117,   122,   123 
Council    of   "Workmen's    and    Sol- 
diers' Delegates..  242,  274-282,  291 
333-335,  371,   494.   510 
(see   also   All-Russian   Council, 
Petrograd  Council  and  Moscow 
Council) 
Councils  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers', 
Peasants'    and   Cossacks'   Dele- 
gates      405 

Crane,  Charles  P 377 

Crimean   War    31,   32 

Decembrists    19-27,    141 

Declaration    of    Soldiers'    Rights 

421,  422,  423 

Degaiev    72 

Delianov      72 

Democratic    Conference    486 

Department    of   Labor 268 

Deutsch,  Leo.  49.  52,  78,  160,  217,  218 

Dolgopolov,   N.    1 155 

Dolgorukov,  Prince  P.  D.76.  113.  142 

149,   499 

Dostoievsky,  F.   M 30,   33 

Droutskoy,   Prince   S.   A 367,    368 

Duma.  114,  115,  136,  141,  159,  227,  242 

248,  327-330,  332.  333,  335,  337,  341 

396,  398,  409,  410 

Duma,  First     136-148,    158 

•     Duma,  Second 140,   141,   149-156 

Duncan,  James     356,  377,  387 

Durnovo     115 

Dzhaparidze,    S.    D 147 

Dzhaparidze,    A.    L 153 


PAGE 
Executive     Committee,     Congress 

of    Peasants'    Delegates.  .  .325-326 
Executive  Committee,  Councils  of 
Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and  Peas- 
ants' Delegates    486 

Ezerskaya     135 

Fedorov,    M.    P 149 

Fialka     135 

Figner,  Vera 71,  72,  314 

Fighting  Organization  of  the 
Party  of  Socialists-Revolution- 
ists     80,  -82,    86 

Finances    443-446 

Finland.  ..  .76,  117,  157.  251,  414,  415 

440 

Fiodorov.    M.    F 113 

Francis,  David  R..254,  342,  380,  381 

Gapon,  Father    97-105 

Georgians    76 

Gershuni 81.    86-90,    92,    93 

Gertzenstein,    Prof.    M.    J 142 

Gessen,     I.    V 150 

Gessen,    V.    M 150 

Glennon,  Admiral  James  H 377 

Godniev,   I.   V 346 

Gogol .516 

Golovin,    F.    A 149,    434 

Gomartelli,    I.    G 147 

Goremykin 136,  138,  140 

Gompers,    Samuel    356 

Gorky,  Maxim     508,   509 

Gotz,    M.    R 232 

Government  of  National   Safety. 417 
Grandmother    of    the    Revolution 
(see  Breshko-Breshkovskaya  i 

Gredeskul,  Prof.   N.  A 1'42 

Grimm,     Robert     414 

Grinevitsky,    N.    I.. 57 

"Group  for   the  Emancipation   of 

Labor" 52,   78,   218 

Gubariev,   I.   A 153 

Guchkov.  A.  I.  .122.  242,  274,   283-287 
292-297,  327-329,  422,  458-461 

Gumenko,    I.    A 153 

Gushchin,    Lieut. -Col 339,    340 

Gvozdiev     486.    519 

Hayden,    Count    P.    A 113 

Henderson,  Arthur.  356,  371-376.  389 

Hertzen,  A 32,   34,   38,    172 

Hertzen's   Circle 28,    33,    35 

Holy    League    197 

Ignatiev     70 

Intelligentsia   80,  202,  507,   508 

International      Socialist     Confer- 
ence     276,    364,    415 

International  Union  of  the  Social- 
Democracv    '.  .  .176 


Alphabetical  Index — Continued 


PAGE 

"Iscra"    108,  219,   220 

Iureniev,    P.    P 150 

Izmailovich     135 

"Izvestia"      243 

Jacobson,    V.    R 145 

Jakubovich.   Col 320,   321,   322 

Jewish  question.  .  .157,   158,  253,   254 
June  3rd,  election  law  of 141 

Kakhovsky    26 

Kaledine,    Gen 435,    450-454 

Kaliaiev.  Ivan   89,  106-112 

Kamenev    352,   353,   354 

Kandelak.    C.    E 154 

Karakozov,    Dmitri     38 

Kareyev.   Prof.   N.   1 142 

Karpovich,    Peter 81,    84,    85 

Kartashev    434,    486 

Katkoff     45 

Kazan    Cathedral,   Demonstration 

before    50,    85 

Kedrin.    E.    1 142 

Kelnitz     46 

Kerensky,  A.  F 80,  210,  211,  242 

287-290,  310,  315-317,  335,  342,  343 

346,  396,  405,  410-415,  417,  421,  425 

429-432,  435-443,  472-476,  478-484 

486,  489-494,  519 

Khrustaliov-Nosar    115,    122 

Khvorostukhin,    I.    P 156 

Kibaltich     58 

"Kiev    Socialist   Union" 82 

Kinthal  Conference    332 

Kishineff  pogrom    77 

Kishkin      486 

Kizevetter,    A.    A 150 

Kokoshkin,   Prof.  F.  F.  ..76,  142,  499 

519 

Kokovtzev     157 

Kolokolnikov,    Father  K.   A 156 

Konopliannikova,    Zinaida    ..125-134 

Konovalov,  A.  I 242,   256-271,   346 

486 

Konshin.    X.    J 154 

Kornilov.  Gen..  416,  417,  435,  446-450 

475-485 

Korolenko      516 

Kotlarevsky,   Prof.   S.   A 142 

Kovalevsky.   Prof.  Maxim  M 145 

Kravchinsky,    Serghei    53 

Kronstadt    sailors'    mutiny 116 

Kropotkin,   Prince  Dmitri    53 

Kropotkin,    Prince    Peter..  34,   37,    42 

45,  59,  159,  188,  190-200,  435 

466-468 

Kutler.    N.    X 150 


Kuzmin-Karavayev,   Gen.  V.   D.  ..14" 

15G 

Labor,    Department    of 268 

Labor   Group 140,    145-147.    152 

Labriola,   Arturo.  .  .  356.   361-364,   389 

"Land  and  Freedom" 49,  51,  54 

60,  217 

Land  Commissions 324,  445 

Lavrov,  Peter  L 46.  48,  180-186 

Lednitsky,   A.   R 14  2,   251 

Lenine,  Nicholas.  ..  159.  411,  413,  414 
431,  490,  491,  494,  495,  498,  509,  510 

Levin,    S.    C 143 

"Liberation"     76 

Liverevsky    486 

Lomonosoff,    Prof.    J.    V 391 

Lopatin,    H.    A 61-68 

Loris-Melikoff    55,  56,   69,  70 

Lujenovsky   125.  134.  135 

Lvov,  Prince  G.  E..113,  136,  143,  227 
229,  242,  346,  424,  425,  431,  519 

Lvov,   N.    N 143 

Lvov,  V.  N 242.  346,  482 

Maklakov,   V.    A 150,    334-339 

409 

Maliantovich     486 

Malinovsky,   Roman    497,    498 

Manifesto  of  October  17th 115 

De    Mann,    Henry 358 

Manuilov.   Prof.   A.  A 242,   346 

March  Revolution.   1917 227-230 

Martiushin,    G.    A 326 

Maslov,   S.   S 305,   306,   486 

McCormick.   Cyrus  K 377 

Mensheviki-Internationalists     .  .  .354 

Mezentzov,    General    53 

Michael      Alexandrovich,      Grand 

Duke    246,    247 

Middle  Class 327-330,  332-339 

Mien,    General    126-128 

Mikhailov     58 

Mikhailichenko.   M.   1 148 

Mikhailovsky,    N.    C 79 

Militarv-Revolutionary     Commit- 
tee      494 

Miliukov.  Prof.  Paul  N. .  .76,  112.  136 

242.   245-247,  254,   272-274,  329-334 

409,  422,  435 

Ministry  of  Trade  and  Industry.  267 

Monarchic   System    495 

Morozoff.    Nicholay    47 

Moscow      Council      of      Soldiers' 

Delegates     369 

Moscow    Council    of    Workmen's 

and  Soldiers'  Delegates   ..374.   375 
Moscow,  revolutionary  days.  234,  23  5 


Alphabetical  Index — Continued 


PAGE 

Mott.   John   R 377 

Municipalities       and       Zemstvos 

Union    295 

Muraviov     180 

Muraviov,    Mikhail    20,    26 

Muraviov,    Nikita    22 

Muromtzev,  Prof.  S.  A. .136,  139,  158 

Nabokov,  V.   D 76,   136,   143 

Nagikh,    I.    N 153 

Nalivkin,    V.    P 153 

"Nartodnichestvo"     41 

"Narodniki" 49,   53,   55 

National  Conference  in   Moscow.  200 
434-475,  486 

National   Militia    245 

National  problem    157 

Navy,   appeal   to    429-431 

Nekrasov,    N.    V 242,    443-446 

Nicholas  Nicholaevitch,    Duke.  ..133 

Nicholas  1 24-30,  32,  187 

Nicholas  II 75,  76,  85,  95,  96,   112 

115,  136-138,  141,  158,  159,  227,  246 

Nikitine     486 

Nobility     158 

Nogin     367 

"Northern   Society" 22,    24,    25 

Novgorodtzev,   Prof.    P.    1 143 

Novitsky,    V.    J 391 

"Novoye  Vremia"    133 

Obolensky,    Prince    86 

Octobrists     122 

Offensive    405-423 

Officers   of  Moscow  Garrison.  .  .  .368 

Oldenburg-     434 

Omelchenko,    E.    1 391 

Onipko,    F.    M 146 

Order  No.    1 421 

Ostrogorsky,    M.    J 143 

Party  of  Democratic  Reforms.  .  .145 
Peasantry    157,   305-326,   501 

(see  also  All-Russian  Congress 

of  Peasants'  Delegates) 

Peasants'  Union 113,  122 

Pereleshin,   D.   A 151 

Pereversez,   P.   N 346 

Perovskaya,    Sophia   58-60 

Peshekhonov,  V.  A 315,  346 

Pestel,  Pavel 20,   22,  24,   26 

Petrashevsky    Circle    30 

Petrazhitzky,   Prof.   L.  J 143 

Petrograd,    revolutionary    days..  233 
Petrograd  Council  of  Workmen's 

and   Soldiers'   Delegates    ..272-275 

278,  283,  340,  341,  346,  349,  350,  364 
365,  421,  423 


PAGE 

Petrov,  Father  G 151 

Petrunkevitch,  I.  I.  ..54,  76,  113,  136 

137,  143 

Petrunkevitch,    M.    L 144 

Pianykh,  I.   E 152 

Plehve — see  Von  Plehve 

Plekhanov,  G.  V 50-52,  55,  78,  159 

160,  216-218,  220-223,  257.  297-300 

435.  468-474 

Pobiedonostzev.69,  70,  73-77,  95,  115 

"Pogroms"     77,    115 

Pogroms — see  Kishineff  pogrom 

Pokatilov     89 

Poland    116,   158,    251-253 

Political   parties,   Russian.  ..  510-512 

Political    strike   (1914) 158-159 

Polivanov    89 

Popov,   M.  K 152 

"Potiomkin"     113 

"Povolzhskoye    Zemliacbestvo"    .    82 

"Pravda"      520 

Preliminary     Parliament.  .  .  .489-494 

507 

Prokopovich,    S.    N 486 

Proletariat     '.  .  .  .77,  78.   159 

Provisional    Government    227 

229,  242-249,  251-274,  277,  291,  310 
320-322,  328-330,  332-339,  346,  348 
349,  353,  354,  391-392,  394-396,  399 
-401,  403,  405,  413,  417-419.  422-426. 
428-430,  432-433,  437-441,  443,  444 
-446,  475-494 


Rada,    Central    Ukrainian.  ..  425,    426 

Ramishvilli,    I.    1 148 

Reaction,   period   of 158 

Reform  Movement    34 

Repressions    54 

Restrictions,     religious,    national 

and    political    73 

Revolution  of  1905.114-123,   496-497 

Revolution,    March,    1917 227-237 

"Revolutionary  Russia"    89 

Riga,    fall    of 475 

Risakov      58 

Rodichev,  F.  I..  76,  113,  136,  151,  229 

Rodzianko,   M.  V 327,  337,   339 

Romanov,   I.   R 154 

Roop,    V.,    Lieut.-Gen 391 

Root,  Elihu...337,  381,  382,  384,  386 

-390 

Rosenblum    365-367 

"Roublevoye   Obshchestvo"    62 

Roudnev,    V.    V 375 

Russell,   Charles   Edward.  .  .356,   377 

388 


Alphabetical  Index — Continued 


PAGE 
Russian     Extraordinary     Mission 

391-404 

Russo-Japanese    "War 94 

Ryleiev    26 

Sadirin,    P.    A 144 

Salaskin     486 

Saveliev,   I.  F 148 

Savinkov,  Boris  V 80,  91,  448 

Sazonov  81,  89,  95,  96 

Schepkin,   Prof.  E.   N 144 

Schkolnik,    Maria    135 

Schmidt,   Lieut.   Peter  P.  ...118,   119 

120,  121 

Scott,  Hugh  L..  Major-Gen 377 

Sebastopol    Garrison    342 

Second     Cabinet     of     Provisional 

Government 346,  348,   349,  351 

Sedelnikov,    T.    1 147 

Semionovsky  Guards 21,  124,  126 

Serfdom,    abolition   of 32-34 

Serghei      Alexandrovich,       Grand 

Duke    80.    106 

Shakhovskoy,   Prince  D.  I 76,   113 

144,  346 

Shcheglovitov    136,    161 

Shershenevitch,   G.   F 144 

Shevchenko     516 

Shidlovsky,    S.    1 341',    409 

Shingariev,   A.   I.  ..151,    242,   314,   346 

499 

Shirsky,    P.    S 156 

Shpagin,    A.    A 154 

Shulgin,    V.    V 409 

Shuvalov,    I.    E 38,    148 

Siberia     516 

Sirtlanov,    Sh.    Sh 151 

Sitin,    J.    M 152 

Skobelev,  M.  1 275,   276,  346,   349 

Smirnov.  Dr 317,  318 

Socialist  Conference — (see  Inter- 
national   Socialist    Conference) 

"Sjocial-Demp'crjat"      159 

Social-Democratic  Party..  52.  78,  112 
122,  140,  141.  147,  148,  153-155,  176 
218,  223,  332,  494,  506,  507,  510 
Social-Democratic   Workingmen's 

Party    78 

Socialist  Manifesto    160-166 

Socialists-Revolutionists.    .80-82,  86 

112,  122,  128,  134.  140,  155,  156,  354 

504-506,  510,  521 

Socialism,  scientific    257 

Socialist  Union,   Kiev 82 

Society  of  United  Slavs 22 

Solomka,    I.    E 147 

Soudeykin    66,   67,   72 

Soukine,    J.    J 391 


Southern  Society   22,   24 

Spiridonova,   Maria   125,   134 

Stachovich,  A.   A ..151 

Stachovich,    M.    A 151 

Stankevitch's  Circle   28,  29 

Stefanovich    49    217 

Steklov,  U.   M 340'  341 

Stepniak     ]      53 

Stishinsky     jjg 

Stolypin 136,    140,    141,    157 

Struve,   P.   B 151 

Sukhomlinov   295     420 

Sviatopolk-Mirsky,   Prince   95 

Synod,    Holy 140 

Sypiagin    80_82 


Tchaykovsky,   Nicholay    44 

Tchaykovsky's  Circle.. 42,   43,   45 

49,  59,  60, 

Terestchenko,  M.  1.242,  346,  384- 

425 

Teslenko,    N.    "V 

Thomas,  Albert 314.   356,  364- 

Tikhomirov     

Tolstoy,  Count  Dmitri.  .38,  40.  70 

Tolstoy,  Leo 76,  '77, 

Trepoff 38,  51,  106, '115', 

Tretiakov     

Trotsky,   Leon 122,   349-351, 

490,  494-497, 

Trubetskoy,    Prince   Serghei 

Tscheidze,  N.  S....275,  349.  387, 

435,  454- 
Tseretelli.  I.  G.154,  278-282.  290 
318,  346.  351.  352,  425,  435,  461- 

Tseretelli,    S.    N 

Turgeniev,    1 30 


46 
,  46 
194 
-386 
486 
151 
•371 
389 
218 
,  72 
158 
116 
486 
422 
520 
113 
388 
458 
291 
463 
148 
33 


Ukraine    414,    423-426,    514-516 

Ukrainian  Rada 425,  514.   515 

Ulyanov — see  Lenine 

"Union   of  Liberation" 76 

"Union  of  Russian  Social-Demo- 

"Union   of  Salvation" 20 

Union    of    Unions 113 

"Union    of    Welfare" .'.'.'!.  20 

"Universal"     (see     Ukraine     and 
Ukrainian  Rada) 

Universities    §5 

Urusov,  Prince  S.  D .  .  145 

Uspensky,   V.    P '  152 

Uvarov     29 

Vandervelde,   Emile.  .  .  .342,   356.   358 

-361,   389 

Verderevski.    Admiral    486 


Alphabetical  Index — Continued 


PAGE 

Verkhovsky,    Gen 486 

Viborg   Manifesto    138,    140 

"Viestnik    Narodnoy    Voli" 218 

Viliuysk    Prison    232 

Vinaver,    M.    M 136,    144 

Vladimir,    Grand   Duke 103 

Volgin,    A 220 

(see  Plekhanov) 

Volkenstein,   L.   A 72 

Von   Pahlen    40 

Von  Plehve 76,  77,  80,  81,  95 

Voronov,    B 160 

"Will  of  the  Peopl-e".  .55,  60,  72,  217 
Wilson,  Woodrow.  .226,  377-379,  382 
384,  392,  435 
Witte,  Count  Serghei.  .  .  .78,  115-117 
Woman    Suffrage    244 


PAGE 

Yakushkin,   V.    E 144 

Yanushkevitch,    Gen 420 

Yollos,    G.    B 144 

"Zaria"     220 

Zarudny    481,    519 

Zasulich,  Vera 51-52,  78,  217 

Zemstvos.  ..51,  53,  54,  72,   75,  76,  95 

96,  97,  113,  433 

Zemstvos'  Congress.  95,  113,  114,  121 

Zheliabov,  A.  1 56,   58 

Zhordania,    N.    N 148 

Zimmerwald     332 

Zinoviev     431 

Zirianov,    P.    A 155 

Zurabov,    A.    G 155 

Zurich,    Revolutionary    colony    in 

46,  48 


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